Proud Exit

New ownership.

New fans.

Same old story.

For the fourth straight season, Nashville's Predators fell out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round, this time losing to Detroit 3-0 on Sunday in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series.

"It would be nice to be on the other end of that handshake for a change," said Predators center Scott Nichol, who played despite a broken thumb on his left hand.

Thus ended a wild ride for this NHL franchise. Over the course of the past 12 months, there has been a change of ownership, a drastic rewriting of the roster, approval of a new lease at Sommet Center and the recruitment of a new wave of hockey fans.

On the ice, the Predators started the season 2-6 but eventually squeezed into the playoffs with a late flurry and split the first four games of this series before being eliminated with back-to-back losses in Games 5 and 6.

"It's been a roller coaster," said Jerred Smithson, who has been with the Predators the past three seasons. "We had some stretches where we were right at the bottom of our division and then we had some stretches where we were just pounding teams. We learned a lot about ourselves this season."

And Nashville learned a lot about the Predators. Seven of the last 11 regular-season games as well as all three home playoff games were sellouts. On Friday night, a crowd estimated at 3,500 came to Sommet Center to watch the telecast of Game 5 from Detroit.

"We had a city that rallied behind us," Coach Barry Trotz said.

Sommet Center was rocking again in the early stages of Game 6 when the Predators had several scoring chances. But after Detroit stretched its lead to 2-0 barely four minutes into the third period, a sense of resignation took hold. The Predators had no miracles left in them.

"It was a hard series," Detroit Coach Mike Babcock said. "They took a lot out of us."

First round an albatross

That's nice to hear, but it does little to soothe the sting of yet another first-round playoff loss. The idea is to survive and advance.

Granted, Nashville is one of only seven NHL franchises that have made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, but the Predators have yet to advance to the second round.

Beyond that, Nashville has yet to win a playoff game on the road. The Predators are 0-6 at Detroit in two series and 0-4 at San Jose in two series.

"As an organization, we're going to have to win a round in the playoffs. We're going to have to win a game on the road," Trotz said. " … We've got some goals and we know we can get there."

This time around, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. With captain Jason Arnott out for the second straight playoff game because of a concussion and with multipurpose center David Legwand playing on a badly bruised foot, the Predators couldn't generate enough offense to overcome a skilled, deep team like Detroit.

Meanwhile, the Red Wings had a telling 43-20 advantage in shots on goal.

"Everybody chipped in but we just didn't score enough goals to beat them," forward J.P. Dumont said.

Wings goalie turned tide

Detroit took the Predators' best shot early in the game and did not flinch. Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood made some big saves, and the first period ended 0-0.

"We weathered the storm the entire first period," Osgood said.

Osgood also stared down a five-on-three Predators power play late in the second period after Detroit had taken a 1-0 lead on Nicklas Lidstrom's bad-hop goal from center ice.

Credit Osgood and the Red Wings defense for changing the momentum of this series. Osgood replaced future Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek during the second period of Game 4 and allowed only one Predators goal the rest of the series.

"Ozzie comes in and plays unbelievable for us," Detroit center Kris Draper said. "He was huge early for us when we needed him, and he was huge for us on that five-on-three when we only had a 1-0 lead."

While Detroit zips into the second round of the playoffs, the Predators will reflect on things that might have been.

"Detroit is the best in the league, but I really believed we were going to beat those guys," Nichol said. "Hopefully we banged 'em up a little bit so they're a little sore going into the next series."

For the Predators, there's always next year.

From The Tennessean