Saves & Salvation: Nashville Church Sign Spreads Preds Goal-spel

NASHVILLE, TN -- Nashville's long been a city all about Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

The same people who pass pints in a smoky honky-tonk will pass the peace in a sanctuary a few hours later. A man can sing he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die and then turn out a poignant, heart-wrenching version of "Peace In The Valley". The same man who wrote "Sunday Morning Coming Down" wrote "Why Me, Lord" ... and only one of the two is about a vicious hangover.

Sacred/secular shoulder-rubbing is nothing new in the Music City and from time to time, the city's congregations will cheekily reference the successes - or failures - of the local sports teams on the ubiquitous church sign.

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Vine Street Christian Church on Harding Pike is in on the act early, posting a message this weekend that "Jesus Saves Lives, Pekka Saves Games," referencing the Nashville Predators' Vezina Trophy finalist: Finnish goaltender, Pekka Rinne.

The holy hockey connection isn't a revelation for 2018. These sort of signs popped up during last year's epic run to the Stanley Cup Final and are bound to do so again as the Preds try to play into June (If you see a good one, shoot a photo to james.lind@patch.com or tweet to @jrlind). And, after all, the Preds clinched their first-ever playoff series victory on Easter Sunday 2011 with Nashvillians quipping the day began with an empty tomb and ended with an empty netter.

As for bread and fishes? Well, at Bridgestone Arena, the bread is likely to be liquid and the fish whiskered:

The Predators Western Conference Semifinal series against Winnipeg is tied at one game apiece after Nashville's Sunday night thrilling double overtime win. Game 3 is Tuesday in Winnipeg at 7 p.m. with Game 4, also in Winnipeg, Thursday at 8:30 p.m. The series comes back to Nashville for Game 5 at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Photo by J.R. Lind, Patch staff