The statue of Gordie Howe--12 feet tall and weighing about 4,500 pounds--inspired some sparkling reminiscences from Terry Crisp and Pete Weber at Joe Louis Arena. Thanks to Pete and Terry for sharing them and to Dirk for passing them along to OtF readers.

A career that included record-setting performances spanning five decades in the NHL sprinkled vivid memories among a wide share of the hockey world, and in Nashville one of the most durable is Number Nine's visit in the mid-1970s.

Ken Murphy, the former Nashville Dixie Flyer who began the city's youth hockey program, invited Howe to address the youngsters at their annual banquet. Howe accepted and regaled the guests with a memorable monologue.

He had fun, too--so much so that he remained in Nashville for a full week!

From this distance, we can smile at the two boys in the photo and their obvious sense of awe at sharing the ice with Gordie Howe. But how would you react if you found yourself in the company of the man known as Mr. Everything, Mr. All-Star, The Most, The Great Gordie, The King of Hockey, The Legend, The Man--or simply Mister Hockey?

As one of the Predator faithful, I ask that we pause briefly to observe the departure of Pierre Gauthier from management of the Montreal Canadiens. Yes, his tenure was brief but we are in an excellent position to appreciate all that he accomplished. In fact, tonight's game at Bridgestone Arena will provide us a perfect opportunity to do so. Let everyone lift an extra cheer or two for Andrei Kostitsyn, Sergei Kostitsyn, Hal Gill and Frankie Bouillon.

Thanks to all who responded to the inquiry, "What would you say, as a Predator fan, to Craig Leipold if you met him at the (Preds-Wild) game (April 3)?"

OtF reader josephmlevy concluded, "...Thank you for bringing us a franchise, but now get your DAMN hands (and other extremities) out of our building!"

Thanks for summoning up the sentiments of many fans, Joe. Please contact me at hockeyhillbilly@gmail.com with an address to send the four tickets!

For weeks we've been seeing a commercial for PetMeds, the mail-order veterinary supply company, featuring a cute Pomeranian and an attractive spokeswoman.

It turns out that the Pom is Bella, a rescue from Southern California who won the grand prize in a contest sponsored by the company.

Much more importantly--from the standpoint of Predators fans, at least--is the fact that the spokeswoman is Kourtney Hansen, whom we know as a Preds dancer and occasional game-night host at Bridgestone Arena.

PetMeds Commercial October 2011 (via petmeds)

Kourtney, Bella and crew filmed the commercial in Indiana.

Even more impressively, Kourtney dares to follow in the footsteps of longtime PetMeds celebrity spokeswoman Betty White:

Here's looking at you, Kourtney...and Bella, of course.

Excellent stuff here that needs to go on the front page. - Dirk

"You don't go to anyplace where the building is louder than our building-rooting for our team-anyplace."

So says Tom Cigarran, chairman of the Predators' ownership group.

And after Saturday's stirring 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues in raucous Bridgestone Arena, the Preds' Brian McGrattan tweeted: "best fans I have seen in 10 years of pro hockey at tonight's game! #predsfansrock"

Tomorrow evening FS TN (SD 28/HD 1675) will debut a documentary dedicated to Nashville's hockey community. It's titled Gold Record: 50 Years of Hockey History in Music City.

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"Seats on the Glass" winners lifted Section 120 to a new level of fan participation at Bridgestone Arena in the course of the Predators' 4-1 beat down of the Blue Jackets. It came after the night's McDonald's coffee race in which three animated beverages compete--clumsily but gamely--across a stylized Nashville layout. The eventual "winner" is listed in the Preds Press, and many fans happily cheer on the drink of choice. So cries of "Pick it up, Caramel Mocha!" weren't unusual. But the "Seats on the Glass" team took the effort farther. After the race they hooted the trailing drink just as they had earlier serenaded the BJs' Steve Mason: "Hot Chocolate LOSER! Hot Chocolate LOSER!"

With a chomp of the Goo-Goo Cluster and a slurp of the Frostie, here's to you "Seats on the Glass" guys.

You rememberJim Balsillie, don't you? The leering Daddy Warbucks look-alike who tried to sell season tickets to the Hamilton, Ontario, Predators and caused Nashvillians to gnash their teeth back in 2007? It was his "damn hands" that the famous placard referred to when it was proudly held aloft by then-Governor Phil Bredeson at an arena rally that summer.

Now Jim Balsillie has stepped down as co-chairman and co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion, Canada's largest company measured in terms of market value. Mike Lazaridis, who founded RIM 20 years ago, is also leaving those posts but will stay on as vice-chairman.

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On the plaza at Fifth and Broad thousands of Predators faithful stood shoulder to shoulder with thousands more who had ridden the band wagon from Chicago to see the Blackhawks' first appearance in Bridgestone Arena this season. As they all pushed slowly toward the entrance the atmosphere was heavy. At least one proactive Pred fan was ready to take on the Second City contingent for braying through the National Anthem--a full half hour before the game! Attitudes were definitely engorged. Then a group of Hawks fans struck up a chant. It began with but a few voices but soon swelled into a vast chorus: "Red Wings Suck! Red Wings Suck!" Preds fans joined in full throat. What a wonderful moment of fellowship among hockey fans.

Stu Grimson, along with Chris Nilan and Jim Thomson, accepted Don Cherry's apology for what they termed Cherry's "baseless and slanderous" tirade against them on CBC's opening night telecast of Hockey Night in Canada.  The three onetime NHL enforcers indicated they would not pursue any further "recourse" against Cherry.

However, Stu Grimson issued a separate statement that gets to the heart of the matter. 

In his view Cherry's red-faced, blustering jeremiad wasn't only a matter of slander.  It was a matter of decency:  "You cannot stand on the highest mountaintop in the country — Hockey Night in Canada — and point your finger at these men and shout down to the Nation that you believe they're 'pukes, turncoats and hypocrites' simply because they have a different point of view than you."

Both Nilan and Thompson have suffered from the "demons" that are believed to have afflicted Rick Rypien and Derek Boogaard and perhaps even Wade Belak. Cherry's commentary thus offended two men who have overcome the "demons" as well as the memory of three who have recently passed on.  His words wounded.  It's all a lot more than "Grapes being Grapes," as some observers blithely suggested.

So Grimson put the issue where it belongs: "This is a decision for Canadians. The CBC is your network; you pay for it. And you hold the network to certain standards and values. Among those values is the obligation to 'treat individuals with honesty and respect.'"

Hockey, a sport that Canada steadfastly claims as its own, has long taken pride in its respect for the principle of honor.  It is the basis for the implicitly understood "Code" that permits and even encourages the enforcer's role on the ice.  It's time to see that honor asserted in the wider hockey world.

The season's first exhibition game brought a new wrinkle to Predators home games--and really, it's one that could only occur in Nashville, Tennessee. It's called a Goo Goo Goal. If the Preds score a goal in the last minute of a designated period, everybody in the house gets a voucher for a free Goo Goo Cluster. Say what? our neighbors to the north may ask. OK, then. Goo Goos are round mounds of chocolate, caramel, marshmallow and peanuts. They've been made in Nashville since 1912 and they've been sponsoring another of Nashville's institutions, the Grand Ole Opry, since the 1920s. In a way, it's an indication the Predators have lodged themselves even deeper into the fabric of community experience. And that's great. But I'm still waiting for a Jack Daniel's Goal.

The Predators have invited season ticket holders to help military personnel and their families experience Smashville this season, and I'd like to encourage all fellow STHs to take advantage of the opportunity.  Preds ownership will match each ticket purchased for men and women in uniform through a program that ranges from $25 to more than $2500.  Every dollar is tax-deductible.  More importantly, it's a way to say thanks to people who deserve our wholehearted support.  Read the letter from the Predators and make your decision. Chris Harrington of the Predators is heading up this donation effort; the number is 615-770-7814.

Very cool stuff has been going on for the last year now to document hockey's history in Nashville, so I'm moving this FanPost to the front page. - Dirk

For a TV documentary devoted to a half century of hockey in Nashville, I am searching out more of the remarkable number of fans who have followed the sport since the days of the Dixie Flyers through the South Stars, Knights, Nighthawks and Ice Flyers.  If you have memories of any--or all--of those teams that you are willing to share, please contact me at hockeyhillbilly@gmail.com  Many thanks and Happy Hockey to all!

Rebecca Dobrinski is a graduate student in UAB's Department of History and Anthropology but she certainly isn't  the prototypical ashen-faced scholar cloistered in some stuffy library hunched over musty volumes.  She is, in fact, a devoted Predators season ticket holder who plies the 200 miles or so from Birmingham whenever the lights go on in Smashville.  She will present her study of hockey history in Music City at the annual conference of the North American Society for Sport History this month.

Meantime UAB Magazine has profiled Rebecca in its current issue.

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Here's the follow-up to the ticket giveaway that OTF reader Hockey Hillbilly ran this week, for those of you who were curious. Congratulations go out to all six of these folks (and special best wishes to the happy couple, Andrew & Madison!), and a huge Thank You goes out to Hockey Hillbilly, for reminding us how special the fan base is here in Nashville, it really is like a giant family at times. - Dirk

Six fans attended Thursday's Predators-Blackhawks game as guests of On the Forecheck readers and made their voices heard among the 17,113 at Bridgestone Arena.

Follow after the jump for pictures and details...

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Great thanks to all On the Forecheck readers who expressed interest in the five tickets available for tomorrow night’s Predators-Blackhawks game.  Determining the recipients was a complicated and occasionally heated process for the judges.  That would be Mrs. Hillbilly and me.  Only the suggestion of a slap upside the head settled the question, and that’s only because I’ve learned to take what seem to be her lighthearted threats semi-seriously.  Even then, we could not bring the final number down to five.  I’ll explain that  in a moment.

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While this isn't an "official" OTF giveaway, I wanted to help get this the greatest visibility possible, hence it's on the front page of the site. - Dirk

The Hockey Gods have bestowed on me five tickets to the Predators-Blackhawks meeting at Bridgestone Arena Thursday, February 24.  These tickets are in Section 108.  That is, they are in the lower bowl in the Preds shoot-twice zone.  Since OtF readers are the savviest observers of the game, I am making the tickets available at no cost to you.

Leave a comment indicating why you would like these tickets--and how many, if you'd like more than one--and I'll select the winners by 6 p.m. Wednesday, February 23.  Then I'll leave the tickets at the Will Call window with your OtF name on the envelope.

Please note that any fan intending to wear red or any variation of that color will be immediately disqualified.

Let's go Preds!

At the Christmas season, there is no place like home for the holidays--except for Siarhiej Aliehavic Kascicyn, whom we know as Sergei Kostitsyn of the Nashville Predators.

His native Belarus is wracked by violence.  Officially police report detention of 639 people, and the Interior Ministry said some of those arrested face up to 15 years in prison for "organizing mass disturbances." They were accused of protesting on behalf of what President Alexander Lukashenko termed "hare-brained democracy" in the wake of his reelection.  Lukashenko was officially declared the winner with 79.7% of the vote after hundreds of riot police stormed Independence Square in central Minsk, Sergei's home town, and dispersed an estimated 20,000 protesters outside the main government building.  Many were beaten and at least four of Lukashenko's nine rival presidential candidates were arrested, their aides said.

Life outside Belarus has not been easy for Sergei, as we know.  Last year La Presse of Montreal reported that Sergei, along with brother Andrei and defenceman Roman Hamrlik of the Canadiens, had links with Pasquale Mangiola, a member of an organized crime group who was charged with firearms and drugs offenses. La Presse also reported that the three players were not involved in any criminal activities and no investigation against them is planned.  Last spring Sergei was effectively cut from the Habs when coach Jacques Martin told him to stay off the ice for morning practice.

Now he is in Nashville on a league minimum contract and has shown glimpses of the talent he displayed during  his time in the Ontario Hockey League and in world competition.  He appears to subscribe to the "Predator way" of hockey.

It's part of our tradition here in Nashville to welcome strangers, particularly those who require a little extra understanding, so this Christmas send a good wish to Sergei Kostitsyn.

Franky Bouillon was driving down the boards to the left corner at Bell Centre when the fan sitting next to me tugged at the sleeve of my Predators sweater.

“Ah mon Dieu, un but pour Gosh!”

Just then Bouillon fed a perfect centering pass to Marcel Goc, who spun and put a backhand past Canadiens goalie Carey Price for the game’s first score.

The fan had read the play—perhaps even before Bouillon and Goc did.  That is the way all 21,273 fans arrayed in bleu, blanc et rouge view, and participate in, the game in Montreal.  They are boisterous and react to every move on the ice.  They are very, very savvy.

And they were courteous to those few of us who wore Nashville colors. Some had sweaters with Montreal native J.P. Dumont’s number 71, many more wore nine-year Canadien Bouillon’s 51 on both Habs and Predators sweaters.  At least two men sported Jordin Tootoo’s 22. Friends and family support their own.  But even we garden-variety travelers from Nashville were accorded some respect after the Preds’ 3-0 win.  At the final horn, the man in front of me turned to say, “Les Predators ont très bien joué ce soir.”

That was a satisfying moment in such an atmospheric hall of hockey, where Canadiens history is everywhere.  Statues of Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur and Howie Morenz usher fans through the outside concourse, which also has monuments to players whose numbers have been retired by the team. A large square marble block has the name of every player to don the Canadiens uniform. Inside is the most astonishing display—the banners representing all 24 of the team’s Stanley Cup championships.

Bouillon turned round and waved to the applauding crowd as he was introduced as the game’s third star, then tapped his stick on the ice to salute them.  On the way out, a fan informed me that Bouillon had been awarded the team’s Jean Beliveau Trophy for his community work and that he still supports youth projects in Montreal.

History is a presence at Bell Centre.