from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

This will be a day they talk about here for a generation. Maybe longer.

There are kids who came down to Lower Broadway with their parents on Saturday afternoon and got to swing a sledgehammer at an old car painted in Pittsburgh Penguins colours. They stood among the sea of strangers that stretched in all directions from Bridgestone Arena and celebrated a city as unique as the chants that echoed through the building.

Then they watched a rocking hockey game.

Well, more accurately, they cheered through one. During warmups, during a 90-second TV timeout, during every appearance of a catfish on the ice and during every hair-raising goal by their Nashville Predators.

"Yeah, you know what, that’s the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in," defenceman P.K. Subban said after a 5-1 victory in the city’s opening act in the Stanley Cup Final. "It was pretty spectacular. Anybody who paid the price of admission to watch the game, I’m sure it was money well spent for them."

It was the kind of game that served as a reward for the hardcore fans that have lived and died with the Predators from the very beginning. It was a night certain to make hardcore fans out of those that have jumped aboard this runaway train a little more recently.

Holy smokes.

Take a bow, Nashville.

continued

Below, watch P.K. Subban talk about his exchange with Sidney Crosby at the end of the game...