Nashville Predators Season Opener Gives At Least One Fan No "Paws" for Concern

Sometimes a good sports story is just a well-told tail. That's what Jim Diamond - who covers the Nashville Predators for the Associated Press and Rinkside Report - discovered when he went to their season opener on Friday night.

During the second period, he was shooting photos of Roman Josi working the puck up the ice. When he went to look at the photos, he discovered that not only did he have a shot of Josi, he had a good shot of a yellow lab following the game.

To make the situation more adorable, the pup was right above the advertisement for Pedigree.

On his website, Diamond writes that he waited for a media timeout in the third period to introduce himself.

"The owner’s name is Josh Ray, and his furry friend is an adorable Yellow Labrador Retriever named Annie," wrote Diamond. "In addition to being cute, Annie is Ray’s service dog.

"The game was Annie’s first hockey contest, and Ray said that she handled the noise and excitement like a champ. Service dogs are trained to handle all kinds of different circumstances, and with more than 17,000 yelling fans, loud music, and goal horns Annie just took it all in stride."

After Diamond tweeted out the photo, Retrieving Freedom - which trained Annie - tweeted out her graduation photo from October 1.

Nashville won the game, 3-2, by the way. The teams play again Saturday. This time in Chicago.

Photo courtesy Jim Diamond