For once, Nashville takes NHL’s center stage

4:39 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One game with the whole hockey world watching.

Consider how rare an opportunity that is for the Nashville Predators, a team that hardly ever gets a chance to showcase itself on national TV.

If they do, it’s because they’re the team other people see when they’re watching highlights or reading a box score. So often, the afterthought franchise.

The pesky Predators have forced their way into the national spotlight, with a chance to knock off a team many picked to win the Stanley Cup. Come Wednesday night, they will the face the Anaheim Ducks in Game 7 of their first-round series at 10 p.m. ET in Anaheim, the last game of the NHL’s opening round,

I floated this scenario to longtime Predators netminder Pekka Rinne, and his eyes lit up.

Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne says that his team, which has “flown under the radar” this season, relishes the chance for some national exposure. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

“Absolutely, it’s a big game for our whole franchise,” Rinne said Tuesday before his team boarded its charter flight to Southern California. “At the same time it’s a big game for individuals too — just to get the exposure. People have to watch us now.

“We have such a talented group of players and deserve a lot of exposure too. It’s always the case [when you’re] playing for a smaller-market team. There’s a lot of advantages too. You get to fly under the radar a little bit. And you don’t feel the pressure from outside that much.

“But it is great that we’re the only two teams playing tomorrow night.”

Predators coach Peter Laviolette led the Carolina Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup championship in 2006. It was a non-traditional, smaller-market team forcing its way into the national scene by virtue of …

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