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Predators bring holiday cheer to Dallas after bet

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For the record, this isn’t Halloween and Peter Laviolette isn’t dressing up as Don Cherry. Nor is he as sad as he looks.

Rather, it’s two nights before Christmas and Laviolette is living up to his end of a bet he made with his teammates.

The bet was a rather simple one.

The players wanted to wear their best festive garb to their final matchup before the Christmas break against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Arena in Dallas on Saturday night, so Roman Josi hatched a plan of sorts.

To do so, the Preds needed to grab five of a possible six points during their most recent Western Canadian road swing.

Seems doable. But it appears the players wanted to go one step further.

If the Predators took maximum points, the players would get their wishes and, to spice things up, the coaches would have to wear festive suits behind the bench for the game.

The deal was struck, and judging by how well the Predators were doing, Laviolette must have called his tailor immediately after handshakes.

The Predators’ players held up their end of the bargain and then some, going 3-0-0 while shutting out two of the possible three teams and allowing just one goal on the road trip after all was said and done.

So there were suits on Saturday night in Dallas. And it looked pretty glorious.

A small price to pay for Laviolette with his team doing so well.


Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck