NASHVILLE – The NFL’s Tennessee Titans didn’t sniff the playoffs this season, going a woeful 3-14, which included a loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11. And still, Nashville Predators coach Andrew Brunette admitted seeing some long faces at the team’s practice last Tuesday, with a few Predators and two of their coaches upset over the previous night’s Vikings’ loss in the playoffs.
“It was a tough day on Monday for those guys. Skol Nation took a hit,” said Brunette, acknowledging Nashville assistant coaches Darby Hendrickson (Richfield) and Todd Richards (Robbinsdale), forward Tommy Novak (St. Thomas Academy), defenseman Brady Skjei (Lakeville) and others in Tennessee who have strong ties to the State of Hockey, and their eternally disappointing football team.
“There was a lot of moping. It was a tough Monday,” said Brunette, with a grin.
The drive between Bridgestone Arena — on Nashville’s legendary Lower Broadway strip of country music venues — and Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul is nearly 900 miles and will take more than 12 hours if you obey the speed limit signs in Wisconsin, Illinois, etc. But there are a surprising number of names on both team’s rosters — on the ice and among the coaches — that have lived and worked in both places since the Predators entered the NHL in 1998 as an expansion team, and the Wild followed two years later.
The Minnesota team plane was delayed getting out of the Twin Cities on Friday, so it was past 10 p.m. when Wild coach John Hynes walked in the front door of his family’s home in the Nashville suburbs, joking that they had not kept dinner warm for him. The Hynes clan still makes its year-round home in Tennessee after John spent parts of four NHL seasons as the Predators’ head coach.
Brunette is in his second season as Nashville’s head coach, and he remains legendary in Minnesota for his time as one of the original Wild players when the franchise was brand new in the early 2000s. His overtime goal versus NHL legend Patrick Roy in game seven of Minnesota’s 2003 opening round playoff series with Colorado remains among the most memorable moments in the history of the Wild franchise.
Hendrickson scored the first Wild goal at Xcel Energy Center in their 2000 franchise home opener. Richards coached the Wild for two seasons in the from 2009-11.
In the visitor’s room on Saturday was Wild forward Freddie Gaudreau, who spent parts of three seasons with the Predators at the start of his career. Wild forward Yakov Trenin was originally drafted by the Preds and played nearly 300 games in Nashville. Wild forward Ryan Hartman had 85 games in a Nashville sweater. Predators winger Cole Smith, from Brainerd, is currently injured, but they recalled winger Kieffer Bellows, from Edina, in time for the game with the Wild.
“It’s funny how it works with different teams where there are those connections,” Hynes said. “There are a lot of connections, but that’s just usually how it goes. Sometimes it’s different when you’re both in the Central Division and teams face each other quite a bit.”
Wild recall emergency backup goalie
While Marc-Andre Fleury got the nod in the Wild crease on Saturday, his backup was a newcomer as regular starter Filip Gustavsson was battling the illness that has made its rounds in the Minnesota locker room in recent weeks.
On Saturday morning, the Wild recalled goalie Dylan Ferguson under emergency conditions from Iowa of the American Hockey League to have in place as the backup while Gustavsson recovers, hopefully, in time for the Wild’s Monday afternoon visit to Colorado.
“Gus wasn’t feeling well this morning so we just recalled (Ferguson) just in case he’s not able to back up tonight,” Hynes said following the team’s optional morning skate at Bridgestone Arena.
On Jan. 7, the Wild signed Ferguson, 26, to a contract for the rest of the season. He has made nine appearances for the Iowa Wild with a 3-6-0 record. He has three NHL starts on his career resume — one with Vegas and two with Ottawa.
Ferguson played last season for Dinamo Minsk in the Kontinental Hockey League. He wore jersey number 33 for the Wild on Saturday.
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