There's a misconception about my feelings regarding the Nashville Predators. Yes, I do believe welcoming Alexander Radulov back after he decided to break a contract and leave the country is something a seemingly professional hockey franchise shouldn't do. Yes, I do believe that the local owners of the team are getting what they deserve for bringing in "Boots" Del Biaggio as a co-financier in the first place.

But no, I'd don't want to see the Predators fail or move or fold or implode.

Even if I think they'll inevitably meet one of those fates, I'm not rooting for that to happen. They are, as The Forechecker points out in his evisceration of my post yesterday, the current Rodney Dangerfield of the NHL: They get no respect, yet there are about a dozen cities that wouldn't mind seeing them as their own headliner.

Ever since the latest Del Biaggio story broke, I've been noodling through ways to solidify the NHL in Nashville. There are certain obvious fixes, like continuing to rally local fans and businesses to buy into the franchise. The following five ideas are less obvious, more long-shot and are submitted for your approval. Or inevitable disapproval.

1. Move the Predators to the Southeast Division.  This idea comes from a conversation I had with Predators blogger Paul Nicholson of Geek Thoughts. The abridged version: Sports fans in Nashville relate more to college sports rivalries than anything else. So naturally, teams in Georgia, Florida and perhaps Carolina are going to stoke fan passions more than teams in Chicago and St. Louis. This move obviously makes sense geographically, although losing Detroit as a division rival will certainly impact gate revenue. Maybe you make that up with teams like Pittsburgh coming to town.

How do you make this happen? Expansion. Give Kansas City and Las Vegas franchises (thus taking away two of Nashville's obvious suitors in the process). We put Vegas in the Pacific; we move KC to the Central and dump Nashville to the Southeast. Two conferences, 16 teams apiece.

2. Bring the Sexy with You.  I'm not quite sure how this happened, but the Nashville Predators are blessed with some of the most stunning ice girls in the NHL.

Part of the franchise's problem has been one of identity. Who are the Predators? Well, you can do a hell of a lot worse that being the team that brings a gaggle of fit eye-candy to road arenas, where they mingle with opposing teams' fans (and, god-willing, get into hair-pulling tussles with the local spirit squad). If I'm ever going to care about Nashville hockey, something tells me Annie might be the right messenger. Hell, they'd have Canadian bloviators turned around on Sun Belt hockey quicker than a sportswriter on a free buffet.

At the very least, the ice girls would be good for the occasional comic relief:

3. Embrace Redneck Nation. The Predators have already reached out to Nashville's country music community through their HockeyTonk initiatives. And singer Dierks Bentley is a fan (video). But the team needs to go beyond that. The Predators need to become the official hockey team of Redneck Nation, NASCAR Nation, Wal-Mart Nation and every other large constituency Obama's electoral staff believes they actually have a chance to win this fall. Get Predators players to present on the CMA Awards. Get the Predators car flags next to the NCAA and Dale, Jr. ones. Have Jordin Tootoo date Taylor Swift ... in about two years.

There's already something very outlaw about being a hockey team in Nashville; so go the full Johnny Cash and attract those same fans who hate snotty Northerners looking down their noses at them. Become the jersey that the surviving members of Skynyrd on stage. To that end ...

4. Change the Name of the Team. From the "everything I ever learned, I learned from Wikipedia" file:

On September 25, 1997, Leipold and team president Jack Diller held a press conference where they unveiled the franchise's new logo, a saber-toothed cat. The logo was a reference to a tooth and leg bone found in a cave in August 1971, during the excavation for the construction of the First American building in downtown Nashville. The 10,000 year old Smilodon fossils were believed to be from one of the last of the species.

Once the logo was unveiled, the franchise held a vote among fans to choose a name. Three candidates were culled from 75: Ice Tigers, Fury and Attack. Leipold added his own submission to the vote, Predators.

Hey, what a shock: The owner's choice won. I was unaware that the logo came before the name, however. Which should explain why the name is a little lame.

Bottom line is that Predators always reminded me of Arena Football, has become quite crude thanks to Chris Hansen ("Do you often keep condoms and 12 feet of rope in your trunk, sir?"), and frankly isn't worth a damn if this isn't on the front of your jersey:

Change the name, change the karma. Change it to what? Who knows. But when your competition are the Titans and the Grizzlies, there's no place to go but up.

5. Finally, Just Win the Stanley Cup Already. Check out the list of Stanley Cup champions over the last, let's say, 60 years. Notice anything about them? Like, for example, they never leave town? The Devils nearly moved to Nashville in 1995, but the Stanley Cup increased the passionate outcry for them to stay. The Penguins nearly moved within the last few years; the legacy of their championship seasons with Mario Lemieux gave the franchise beloved status and had even the commissioner fighting to save them.

The ads say, "The Cup changes everything," and it's true: There's a intrinsic stability that comes with a championship banner that no ownership group that can bring you.

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Like I said, these ideas are the long-shots. But I'm sure there was a time when they thought we wouldn't be making Rodney Dangerfield references in 2008, too.

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