Predators postmortem

Another season is over for the Predators, and despite tremendous progress, they're no closer to being a true contender than two seasons ago, when all of Nashville was just happy to make the NHL playoffs.

Funny, it doesn't seem like anyone's all that happy now.

With Thomas Vokun going down late in the season, most everybody wrote the Preds off for the playoffs. The gauling part is that the players seemed to agree. The bad old habits (stupid penalties, not enough shots on goal, careless turnovers) came back in spades against San Jose. It was all more of a problem than anyone wanted to admit in the regular season, but Vokun was wonderful at cleaning up messes. Chris Mason is only an average goalie, and average goalies can't overcome dumb play all the time.

And Barry Trotz's gameplan was less than inspired also. Clearly the Sharks had more talent, but there was no reason for Nashville to not try and play a speed game - after all that's what got them this far. Instead the Preds spent a week channeling their inner Charlestown Chiefs, never missing an opportunity to retaliate at a stupid time and in full view of a referee. Memo to Trotz: This isn't 1995 anymore. Outhitting the opponent every game may be cathartic for the soul, but it isn't always the smartest idea. The NHL, after all, is cracking down on penalties. It was in all the papers.

And to complete the unhappy trifecta, Nashville's front office came unglued late in the week, threatening a local TV blackout for Sunday's game (which like Game 2 did not sell out.) Steve Violetta, who was brought in from the Padres because he supposedly had the magic touch with business types, tried to pin the blame on the corporate community, since many businesses with season tickets did not renew them for the playoffs. Uh guys, you're just now noticing this? Did you think about giving those businesses a sound reason to buy, other than "hey, it's the playoffs!" Many places budget months or even a year in advance for entertainment outlays. You need to show them how they'll get a return on their investment before they'll buy.

And it doesn't say much for the acumen of the marketing department that they had 2,600 tickets left as of Wednesday and still came up about 1,000 shy of a sellout. Violetta acknoledged that prices had been raised 10% from the regular season, but then trotted out the "everyone else is doing it" defense.

Didn't work with mom, won't work now. Nashville isn't Detroit, Montreal or even San Jose. You have to know how the market works. And right now, the Preds are a novelty act for all but a small core fan base.