Nashville NBC affiliate said Predators advanced to “Stanley Cup Finals.” They didn’t.

We’ve seen plenty of local networks screw up NHL coverage, and the latest is Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV 4. The Predators beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 Sunday to win their second-round series 4-2, and WSMV then aired a teaser for coverage with the caption of “Preds head to Stanley Cup Finals!” The problem there, beyond the usage of “Finals” versus the NHL-preferred “Final,” is that Nashville hasn’t done so quite yet. The Predators will face the winner of the Edmonton Oilers-Anaheim Ducks series in the Western Conference final first. Here’s the erroneous report:

The Predators aren't in the Stanley Cup finals yet, no matter what this Nashville NBC station thinks https://t.co/roiWtJGiNi pic.twitter.com/adgf1prVYV

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) May 7, 2017

There’s nothing wrong with the actual newscast (at least in that portion of it), but whoever captioned it definitely screwed up. And they provoked the ire of plenty of Predators’ fans:

Easy there @WSMV. Not quite. #Preds pic.twitter.com/6ukUaukNRw

— Todd Murphy (@VolofTN) May 7, 2017

Thanks Channel 4 for Jinxing us, @WSMV https://t.co/GDpM5HHxWR

— Uncle Tuck (@UncleTuck) May 8, 2017

It's the #StanleyCup Final, not Finals. Two errors in one, great work @WSMV

— LelouchNoonienYagami (@ShyFunatic) May 8, 2017

The best part was the trolling of the station’s actual tweet on this, which was correct:

Going to the Western conference final baby!!! https://t.co/dovblruWec

— WSMV 4 Nashville (@WSMV) May 7, 2017

https://twitter.com/ncbjd/status/861383823036207105

We see local stations mess up hockey coverage terminology quite frequently, but this one is especially funny considering that it’s the NBC affiliate that aired the game. Of course, this kind of screwup doesn’t say anything about Nashville as a hockey city; the attendance and fandom there has been very impressive, and plenty of media outlets in more traditional hockey markets have made mistakes too. (Such as the CBC saying the Florida Panthers were in the Super Bowl.) It does say something about the amount of research whoever wrote this caption did.

[Deadspin]