The Predators' journey to the Stanley Cup finals began nearly two decades ago while on a mission to fill Nashville's honky tonks with hockey talk.
Though the warmth of the city and the enthusiasm of the fans were present from Day 1, turning the country music capital of the world into a hockey town was a challenging transformation. Former team captain Kimmo Timonen was a rookie arriving from Finland for training camp in 1998 before the Nashville Predators' inaugural season.
"I was like, 'Wow, what is this place?' It looked like something from an old country movie," Timonen said.