Vokoun Looks Back Fondly on Time Stopping Pucks with Preds

While most NHL goaltenders choose to sport a fresh paint job on a new mask at the start of each season, the look on Tomas Vokoun's lid didn't differ much from 1998 through 2007 - or at all.

One could easily surmise it may have been superstition - especially with a netminder - that led Vokoun to leave the design of his mask throughout his time in Nashville virtually unchanged.

Instead, the former Predators puck stopper states the artwork was never top of mind.

"Honestly, I'm a simple guy," Vokoun recently told Voice of the Preds Pete Weber on a Fifth Third Bank Hockey from Home video chat. "I'm more the kind of person where if it works, it works, and I'm going to keep an eye on fixing it unless it's broken. I wouldn't say it's superstition… but in art and fashion and stuff like that, I don't have that gene in me."

What Vokoun did have was a penchant for keeping shots out of his own net over the course of eight seasons with the Predators, as he became one of the most popular players in the early days of the franchise.

After Nashville's first No. 1 netminder, Mike Dunham, left in 2002, and before a goaltender by the name of Pekka Rinne came along in the late-2000s, Vokoun was the man between the pipes for the Predators.

The 2002-03 season saw Vokoun take the reins, and the native of the Czech Republic appeared in a career-high 73 games in 2003-04. He posted a career-high 36 victories one season later, representing the Preds at NHL All-Star Weekend and finishing fourth in voting for the Vezina Trophy.

Vokoun was traded to Florida in 2007, but after the Predators selected him from Montreal in the Expansion Draft of 1998, he made sure a career in the NHL would not be short lived.

"We had [former Predators Goaltending Coach] Mitch Korn, and his big saying was always…'It's not a sprint, it's a long-distance run,'" Vokoun recalled. "I had a lot of ups and downs [early on in my career], but that's where you grow and learn the most… For me being 22 years old, still being still very young at the time, it was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I'm grateful for that opportunity I got there [and what it led to] for the rest of my life."

Now 43 years of age, Vokoun retired in 2013 after 15 years and exactly 700 NHL games with Montreal, Nashville, Florida, Washington and Pittsburgh. His longest and most successful stop, however, came in Tennessee, with a record of 161-159-46 with the Preds, including 21 shutouts.

Rinne has since taken over most of the goaltending records in franchise history, but it was Vokoun who used to own the top spots in things like wins, goals-against average, save percentage and the like. However, Vokoun does have one that will never be taken away - the first shutout in franchise history.

That mark came on Jan. 15, 1999, in Nashville's 42nd game in club history, and Vokoun stopped all 31 shots he faced in a 2-0 win against the Phoenix Coyotes.

"It's a special thing, the first shutout in franchise history," Vokoun said. "The beauty of it being a new franchise, there were a lot of things that had never happened… When you start with the franchise, you get the headstart and you get your name on things… In the moment, my main concern was trying to show I belong in the League and stay in the League and all that. But to get the shutout and all that, it was very special."

The firsts kept coming for Vokoun, including Nashville's inaugural appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2004, and subsequently, their first postseason victory in that same year.

Vokoun thinks of those moments and others when he's asked to recall some of his fondest memories with the organization, but he also figured out rather quickly what just about every player who has ever dressed for the Predators soon realizes.

"I've been back to Nashville many times after I retired, and even when I was still playing when I came back, I always got the warm feeling that you're going somewhere… that's part of you," Vokoun said. "It's like a second home where you know a lot of people, and going there, it makes you happy… When I go to Nashville - and I know the city and everything has changed so much - but a lot of the people are still there. It's really close to what it was and always going to be. It's a great place to be."

Playing the role of dad these days, Vokoun resides in south Florida with his family and is active in coaching with the South Florida Hockey Academy along with former Preds Olli Jokinen and Sergei Krivokrasov.

The goaltender still finds his way back to Nashville from time to time though, and while catching up with folks like Weber and fellow Predators broadcaster Terry Crisp are highlights, those memories of the early days on Broadway always rush back.

There's pride for Vokoun, too, as he witnesses how far the franchise has come in the years since his departure - a sense of accomplishment for playing a small role in turning Nashville into a true hockey town.

"Watching when they went to the [2017 Stanley Cup] Final and watching the games, watching people on Broadway, and just all for a hockey game in Nashville, it's amazing," Vokoun said. "It really is a success story for the NHL… It's amazing, and I'm so glad because it's a great franchise and it's a great city. It's a great place to live, and it deserves to be where it is today… People look at Nashville just the way they look at every other top team in the League. For them to reach this high level, it's amazing."