There aren't many better stories in the NHL this season than Steve Sullivan.

Sidelined for nearly two years with crippling back pain, he finally made his return to the Predators lineup on Jan. 10, 2009, and played just over 12 minutes in a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Nearly three months later, Sullivan has scored nine goals and has 24 points in 34 games, respectable totals for a player who, at age 34, spent ages in a back brace unable to do much of anything.

More importantly, since his return to Nashville's lineup, the Preds are 20-11-5 and right back in the thick of the playoff race.

I had a chance to chat with Steve on the weekend, and I told him a bit about my recent trip to Nashville and the series on hockey in Tennessee that has been appearing here ever since. As someone who has lived in the city for five years now, he has some great insights into Nashville as a hockey market and what life as a Predator is really like.

We get to some of the most interesting bits toward the end of the discussion, so if you don't have the stomach for the uncut version, scroll to the end.

Q. When you got traded to Nashville [from Chicago in February of 2004] how much did you know about the city and what playing there would be like?

Sullivan: I had no clue. I had no expectations, I didn't know very much of Nashville. Being in the same division [while he was with the Blackhawks], we really didn't stay [in the city] overnight. I mean, I knew it was a very countryish downtown with honky tonk bars, and the history they have with the Ryman Theatre and stuff, but besides that, I had no idea what to expect when I was coming here.

Q. So maybe you can tell me, what surprised you about the hockey part of Nashville?

Sullivan: Surprised me? We've got probably the most passionate fans in the league, honestly. I wish that our numbers were bigger, I wish we had a bigger group of them, but you know, we don't have very much corporate support. But I think the "Joe the Fan" types, I think we could rival anybody in the league. Our fans are extremely passionate.

Being here in Nashville, I've had a lot of my friends from my hometown, from Canada, come up and they say the atmosphere here is just outstanding to come watch a game. It's not sit on your hands and just watch 60 minutes of hockey. Our hockey operations crew do an outstanding job of entertaining you through the 2.5 hours you're going to be in the rink.

Q. You're from Timmins, correct?

Sullivan: Correct.

Q. So, as someone who grew up in a small Canadian city, isn't it sort of incredible to think about it — they drop this team in the middle of Tennessee, and all of a sudden this fan base springs up, and really loves the game. Do you have any sense of why that has happened or why people have embraced hockey so much there?

Sullivan: I think they've got a lot of, I don't know the right word to use, a lot of people that have come from other places. We've got a couple motor plants here so we've got some people from Detroit, from Michigan, we've got people from a lot of other parts of the country. So I think that's where our core base started is with people that have moved here from the Northeast of the U.S. and it just built.

To be honest with you, I really think that the fan base starts with youth hockey, and if you can get children involved with youth hockey, then they want to go watch NHL games. And they take parents to go watch the games. And I think that our game is a live game, you have to watch it live. Once you get to a couple games, you get hooked. That's what we're trying to do here — we're trying to get as many people to the rink when we play and try to give them the best product we can because we think that it can work here.

Q. I was actually going to ask you about that — I have a friend down in Nashville and he said that his son plays with your son in the minor hockey system. I'm curious: What's minor hockey like in Nashville? What's it been like for your son playing there?

Sullivan: It's actually been great. We have a few former professional hockey players here, and we've got Tim McAllister who is from the Kingston area who runs the program out in the Franklin area where my son plays his minor hockey. It's a great program. We've had a really good friend of mine who I played junior with, Joe Van Volsen, from the Oshawa area, he brought his team team down for a tournament last year — as a matter of fact, my brother's team would have been here the same time you were here —

Q. Oh?

Sullivan: For that 8-0 game [against Detroit]. Anyway, they come down [to play Nashville teams], they fare okay — but I mean they don't crush the competition. So, I mean, the hockey here is pretty good. I think that the numbers keep growing. For the last couple years, the novice program had four teams, this year it had six, so the game is growing and that's a positive sign. If you can continue to grow the youth hockey here, that shows it's catching on.

My son first went to school and was the only player when he came here in first grade, and now he's got at least 10 of his buddies that are playing hockey because of him. It's definitely growing.

Q. How about away from the hockey, what's it like living in Nashville? Do you enjoy living there, do you think it's somewhere you could stay long-term? [He thinks I'm implying he's old and settling down]

Sullivan: (laugh) Obviously, you know, my contract's up at the end of the year, so we're going to go wherever we need to that's going to best fit our family. To stay here or not, that's still up in the air, but we do really enjoy it. It's a great place to raise a family, the southern hospitality is outstanding. You can't meet any nicer people. We've met some great friends away from the game of hockey, and absolutely it's a place that, if it works out, I could settle down for a long time here.

The weather's perfect, too — you get to see the four seasons, you don't get any snow, but you see the changing of the seasons, and good summers for golf for myself, warm summers. The winters aren't that bad. But it's not like it's summer all the time. That's great for us.

Q. It was funny, when I was down there, it did snow a little bit, and we had to drive to Memphis [to see Graceland] the next day and the road was terrible. It was basically closed down because there was an inch of snow on the ground.

Sullivan: Well, what happened was that it's so hilly, you know, there are so many hills and the roads do freeze. If you're not used to driving in any kind of icy weather, you're going to have a hard time driving. It is not very flat terrain around here, so it does get a little slippery.

Q. Tons of cars in the ditch. I couldn't believe it.

As a player around town do you get recognized a lot? I got the impression that it's a lot different than a Canadian city, obviously. [There were a lot of players, coaches and team staff frequenting the local bars during my visit.]

Sullivan: We do get to come and go please, but it's not because we don't get recognized. I think it's just, we're in Nashville, the Mecca of country music and the home to a lot of movie stars, and I really believe the southern people are very polite people and they're not here to bother anyone. They're so used to seeing people around town that it's just like — I'm in the grocery store, you do get recognized, and it's like 'hey Sully, great game last night, keep it up' and off they go with their cart. It's not like a Canadian city where, you know, we're going to break down power plays with the fans.

They enjoy seeing us, they're happy we're here, but they also respect our privacy and that's a real big key for a lot of players that do sign here long term. You get the best of both worlds.

Q. There's been a lot of talk, especially in Canada, about the Predators and the future of hockey in Nashville. From your perspective, do you think the NHL should really fight to have a team there long term? I mean, I know it's tough for you to speak out on this, but how do you weigh in on that?

Sullivan: I think that an organization has to be successful. Professionally, on the ice, and financially. If it doesn't work, you have to move.

That being said, we're 10 years or 11 years into this, and with this economic downturn it's going to be difficult for this team in the next couple years, but if it can hold on — you know Nashville is going to have to try to get more corporate sponsorships, and if they can start getting that and get some corporate help...

[He pauses.]

You know, a lot of the players love playing here. You don't hear a bad thing from anybody that's played here, we enjoy it, I'd love for it to stay here. Until you come and watch a game here, you don't really know what you're missing. It's definitely one of those experiences where you leave and you're just like 'wow, that's totally different than what I expected here' and I think they get a bad rap for not having snow on the ground and people thinking that means the team can't succeed.

It's going to take a little longer than expected, but I think it can work.

My thanks to Steve Sullivan for taking the time to answer a few questions and put some real thought into his answers. It would have been pretty easy to give a banal response to the last one there, but I think he offered some frank thoughts on what it's like playing in the market and how players view its current situation.

I also appreciate the Preds lining up the interview, something not a lot of clubs offer to do for bloggers. The team's staff was excellent during my entire time down there, and I even received a nice email from owner David Freeman after publishing Part 1 in the series. They're working very hard behind the scenes to make things work.

The fourth and final part of the series should be up in the next few days.