Being as they are the only NHL team to have never made the playoffs, I can’t say that I blame them.

Posted by Josh on 10/28/08 at 09:17 AM ET

We’ve waited 8 years.  We’re seeing the same stuff.  I’m a season ticket holder, so I go, but for those who aren’t financially committed, I understand why they’d rather stay home.

Posted by Theo on 10/28/08 at 09:47 AM ET

the team is a joke and run like one......not playing the young stars like Filitov and giving other young stars liek brassard and Voracek peanuts for minutes?

These are the players the fans want to see........no wonder they are not paying !

Posted by C.J from Toronto on 10/28/08 at 10:06 AM ET

I always ask my fellow Preds fans, would you rather have our situation where we’ve been to the playoffs a lot but never won a series and have had ownership and attendance issues and are ridiculed daily by the rest of the league, or would you rather be Columbus and have no ownership issues, no ridicule, but also no playoffs. I guess the no playoffs is making for the attendance issues now.

Posted by PredNeck from Hicktown on 10/28/08 at 10:18 AM ET

I can’t in good conscious spend the money to watch the level of play we are getting. Are you reading this HOWSON? The so called changes over the summer were window dressing and when the house does not have walls.... I love watching hockey in person, but I can watch all the squirt and mite games i want for free with my kids in them and frankly there is more effort. This team is in trouble and until they WIN people will not come out.

Posted by Dave from Cbus on 10/28/08 at 10:53 AM ET

Wasn’t the weather really bad in Columbus last night?

Posted by Zach from Buffalo on 10/28/08 at 11:20 AM ET

CBS gets a bad rap.  The market is very fertile for hockey.  Unfortunately for them, part of their market is long-standing Wings’ territory.

CBS made some terrible offseason moves though.  Moving Zherdev and Fritsche?  Good move probably.  The return for them though—Backman and Tyutin?  Really?  Terrible return if you ask me.  Sign Mike COmmodore?  MIKE COMMODORE?  That’s your defensive savior?

The CBS fans aren’t stupid, they can look at the team and see that it’s not a contender.  And I also agree that they’re not playing their kids enough.

And finally.... it was Anaheim they were playing.  ANA isn’t much of a draw anywhere, I’d imagine.  Who wants to see them play?  Especially considering how badly they suck right now… so that can’t have helped.

Posted by Primis on 10/28/08 at 11:33 AM ET

Isn’t it about time to start the death pool? Which team leaves town first:

Columbus
Nashville
Florida
NY Islanders
Phoenix

I’ll take Nashville

Posted by kevin from boston on 10/28/08 at 12:14 PM ET

Think ya gotta add Atlanta to that list.

Posted by Josh from Montreal on 10/28/08 at 12:15 PM ET

Letting fan favorite Jody Shelley go, and not replacing him with another enforcer, really hurts them too. Like them or not, but those players put people in the seats.

Posted by JAMESinMI on 10/28/08 at 01:28 PM ET

I say Phoenix. Get ‘em back in Winnepeg where they belong!!

Posted by JP from Milwaukee on 10/28/08 at 06:23 PM ET

Take the Devils out of Jersey too.  They can’t get a sellout unless the Rangers are in town.  They’ve got a great new arena but no one in Newark cares - the place is less than half full most nights.  Maybe if they played more exciting hockey it would help but I doubt it - the Rangers fan base is too big in an area too close to where they play.

Posted by Ryan from NJ on 10/28/08 at 08:01 PM ET

Phoenix can’t leave any time soon.  The contract with Jobing.com Arena and the city of Glendale calls for the franchise paying the city $750 million dollars if they leave in the next few years.

Unless a multi-billionaire plans on buying the franchise, a move won’t happen for the next 15-20 years.

Posted by Turk from Glendale, AZ on 10/28/08 at 11:16 PM ET

Who leaves first? I;m guessing the writing is on the wall for Nashville. However, I did go to a Phoenix home game last year and it was really lacking fans. Friday night--seemed like 20% of seats were filled, the boxes didn’t even have the lights on. Interesting insight from Turk on this.. I had no idea about the lease.

We could probably do with 2 to 4 less teams, and place those in poor markets somewhere where people care.

Posted by Jack from Ottawa on 11/02/08 at 06:53 PM ET

Damn.  How much more must Rick Nash do for them?

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 11/02/08 at 07:01 PM ET