Predators-Red Wings Rivalry Has Deep Roots
Last night I lucked into a ticket to see the Nashville Predators host the Detroit Red Wings in a Stanley Cup playoff game. The intensity of the game, in which Nashville tied Detroit 2-2 on the series (go Predators!), lay in more than the simple fact of its being a playoff match-up; it has been apparent since long before the Preds grew from a mediocre expansion team into a Stanley Cup contender that these two teams were rivals from day one. In the past, people have said this resulted from the southward migration of Red Wings fans from Detroit to Nashville’s suburbs, where car manufacturer Saturn — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Detroit’s own General Motors — opened a plant in 1990. However, history has seen migration in the opposite direction as well. When I consider how many calls and emails we receive from country music fans in Michigan, it is clear that the northward migration of people from the rural southeast, much of it due to employment opportunities at now-defunct plants in Michigan throughout the 1950s, brought southern music along for the ride. In other words, despite the vast distance between us (not to mention that many players on both teams are foreign!), there is a fascinating cultural link between our two cities — hence the appeal of, for instance, the Bobby Bare song “Detroit City.” This may also account for why some of Nashville coolest citizens are Detroit ex-pats (read: Jack White of the Raconteurs).