20th Season: Kariya Shares Funny Preds Memories

It takes just a quick glance at the numbers to see the extent of Paul Kariya's on-ice impact during his two-year stay with the Predators.
He led the Preds in scoring both seasons, averaged nearly a point per game in 164 contests, and set single-season franchise records - for both points and assists - that still stand.
But Kariya also left his mark on the franchise in other ways.
His practice habits, work ethic, competitive nature, legendary focus on game days - even his idiosyncratic routines - all made an impact on teammates and coaches that would last long after Kariya departed.

A 2017 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Kariya returned to Nashville earlier this season, honored by the Predators as part of the franchise's 20-year anniversary celebration.
"Probably the most important thing I learned from playing alongside guys like Paul and Peter Forsberg - and something I've tried to pass on - is how they practiced and prepared, and how they never really took any days off," Predators forward Scott Hartnell, said. "They came to work every day. When I was playing with Paul and I had a bad day of practice, it was almost like I disappointed him. He came here to win. You didn't want to let a guy like that down."
Hartnell was only 23 years old when Kariya signed in Nashville during the summer of 2005, but Kariya's influence wasn't limited to the team's younger players.
Even veterans like center Jason Arnott, who was in his 13th season when he first played with Kariya, recalls marveling at what he saw in Kariya. The two players helped the Preds produce franchise records of 51 wins and 113 points in 2006-07.
"His focus and the way he went about preparing for a game is like no other player I've ever seen," Arnott said of Kariya. "It could almost be a little too intense, but he always came prepared to play. He was always very intense and he always wanted to win.
"He was still a very positive, reinforcing guy, just a great player to play with. He wasn't a selfish player and he played both ends of the rink. It was one of my highlights to get to play with him for sure."

Those kinds of testimonials were exactly what Predators General Manager David Poile had in mind when he stunned the hockey world by signing Kariya.
Prior to Kariya's arrival, the Preds had never won 40 games in a season and had only reached the playoffs once. But Kariya helped the Predators produce a combined 100 victories in two years, with Nashville averaging 108 points during those two seasons.
"All the stuff (Kariya) said and did, for our players and coaches, it was like going to university," Poile said. "It was like he was the teacher and they were the pupils."
Even Kariya's many quirks were memorable.
One long-held belief is that Kariya was so focused on game days that he wouldn't let anyone ride in the passenger seat with him on the way to the arena. So on nights that his girlfriend would accompany him to games, Kariya had her sit in the back seat.
"A lot of stories you might have heard have been exaggerated through the years," Kariya said with a laugh.
But his teammates clearly believed it was true.
On a night that Kariya drove former Preds forward Scott Walker to a home game, both players noticed a car filled with several teammates was approaching them at a stoplight. To perpetuate the idea that Kariya allowed no one in his front seat, Walker took quick action.
"He got out of the front seat and jumped into the third row," Kariya said. "The (teammates) pulled up beside us and Walker's in the third row, and they're all going, 'Oh my gosh, look, (Walker) is in the back seat!'
"But [sticking to habits] is just how I was raised to perform, to go through a routine. That's the best way to get ready. That's the only way I knew how to do it."
Kariya also had a lively sense of humor, evidenced by a stunt he used to pull at times with former teammate Jordin Tootoo when the Preds were on the road.

It's customary for a team's younger players - which Tootoo was at the time - to allow veteran players like Kariya to get off the team bus first. But in order to avoid autograph seekers hounding the bus when it arrived at rinks or hotels, Kariya would sometimes have Tootoo - who also had a short frame and dark hair - run cover for him.
"He would always tap me on the shoulder and say, 'Go ahead, Toots, go ahead of me,'" Tootoo said. "I would always wonder why at first. But as soon as I got off the bus, all these autograph seekers were coming up to me and saying, 'Paul Kariya, can you sign this? Can you sign this?'
"I eventually caught on. So I'd be signing autographs for Paul Kariya. Then he'd come off the bus later and all of them would be like, 'Oh my gosh, that wasn't even (Kariya) autographing.'"
The only disappointing part of Kariya's tenure with the Predators was that it was so short.
Poile would have loved to bring Kariya back for an encore, but the timing was not good. When Kariya's contract expired following the 2006-07 season, former Nashville owner Craig Leipold was in the process of selling the team, so he didn't want to take on any extra salaries.
"Obviously the ownership situation at the time was not solidified," Kariya said. "So there wasn't really an option to go down that road. But it seems like now things are great from the ownership down."

Indeed, watching from afar, Kariya was impressed by the scene in Nashville last season, when crowds of more than 50,000 swarmed downtown for some of the Preds' Stanley Cup Final games.
"I thought it was fantastic, just electric to see the fan support - before the games and out in the streets," Kariya said. "I'm sure if we would have made a run through the playoffs, it would have been big.
"Because they made it to the Stanley Cup Final, more people realized what kind of fan support Nashville has. But I think it's been here a long time."
Given the success of this year's team - and the number of players that are signed to long-term deals - Kariya is optimistic those types of celebrations will continue into the future.
"[Poile] has done just a tremendous job, and the organization has done a tremendous job growing the team," Kariya said. "The team is set up now where they're going to be a great team not only for a couple years, but for five or six years. They're really fun to watch."