Neither the Nashville Predators nor the Phoenix Coyotes play in traditional hockey markets.
Their playoff series, which begins Friday in Phoenix, could even be seen as some kind of novelty, considering the NHL postseason mainstays — Detroit, Chicago, Vancouver and Boston — that will be watching this round from home.
But in Nashville and Phoenix, the series is huge. Both teams are trying to give their cities a conference finals appearance for the first time.
"You've got teams that have grown, you're seeing Game 7s, you're seeing highlights," Predators coach Barry Trotz said of the second-round playoff teams. "I think that's great for the game and great for different markets.
"From our standpoint, every year with the salary cap the way it is, it's going to be like this going forward. Once you get in, it's going to be anybody's ballgame, if you will."
The Predators began play with the 1998-99 season. The Coyotes moved from Winnipeg to Phoenix in 1996.
"It helps the grassroots. You get excitement," said Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, who led the Dallas Stars to a conference final in 2008. "New blood in there, the more teams we can get to that element, I think that's great for the league."
The Predators and Coyotes are similar beyond aspirations. Both have stellar defense and standout goaltenders.
Predators goalie Pekka Rinne finished the regular season with an impressive 2.39 goals-against average and .923 save percentage, and continued to look strong in the five-game series win over Detroit.
Against Chicago in his first-round series, Coyotes goalie Mike Smith stopped 229 of 241 shots, the most faced by any goaltender, after coming on strong late in the regular season. At times he seemed to will Phoenix past Chicago.
"I try to say I don't really care about another goalie that much, but you always try to be better than the other guy on the other end of the ice," Rinne said. "(Smith)'s been doing a great, great job. It's important to know what kind of goalie you're facing.
"They're strong defensively. They create a lot of offense from the points. Just a solid team with a really strong goalie."
While most analysts expect a low-scoring series, players said it's hard to predict what might happen at this stage of the playoffs.
"We never know until we play it, that's the thing," said Predators defenseman Hal Gill, a veteran of 105 playoff games. "I didn't think there would be a lot of penalties in the Detroit series but there ended up being a lot. We have to wait and see how it goes. We have to play a solid game. We know that they have good goaltending and a lot of skill. They have a good mix of everything, I guess."
The Predators stayed loose after clinching against the Red Wings last Friday and waited patiently to learn their Round 2 opponent. The potential for rust after a longer layoff isn't a major concern, Rinne said.
"We've been practicing kind of long but it's been a good tempo and everybody's been sharp," he said.
The Predators split the regular season series with the Coyotes 2-2, but those games could be considered misleading. Three of the meetings were in 2011, well before the Predators made several late-season roster additions, including Gill and forwards Alexander Radulov, Andrei Kostitsyn and Paul Gaustad.
"Definitely helped them," Coyotes forward Martin Hanzal said. "I think Radulov is a pretty good player; he's got some skill, he's got some speed. Kostitsyn as well, he's a skilled player. So, it's helped them for sure, but yeah, we want to beat them so it's going to be fun."
Hanzal also acknowledged the similarities between the two teams.
"They have a good defense and kind of play a defensive style just like we do," he said. "So, I think it's going to be a long series and it's going to be a tough one, it's going to be one-goal games."
While the Predators finished with the better regular season points-wise (104-97), the Coyotes get home ice because they won their division. Games 3 and 4 will be in Nashville next week.
Beginning the series in Phoenix may actually work better for the Predators given his team's long layoff, Trotz said.
"I'm really happy that we're starting on the road. I think it's needed for our team. I think it'll be a good way to get back into the swing of things, by going into the other team's den right off the bat," Trotz said.
"We're ready. You can tell the guys are ready to play. … They're excited about it. We're going to head to Phoenix and get this thing started."
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