The Chicago Blackhawks took home the Stanley Cup in 2015, taking the series 4 to 2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning and advanced through the playoffs, coming up short against the St. Louis Blues just last year. But, much to the surprise of ESPN’s prognosticators, this year the No. 8 seed Nashville Predators swept the Hawks right out of the series. And Gnash, the Predators’ mascot, isn’t about to let ESPN forget it.

Chicago fans aren’t the only hockey aficionados taken by surprise that a team from way back in the league swept the Blackhawks. Chicago is a team that has either won the Stanley Cup or has come close in the hunt for the top spot for much of the last decade. With three Stanley Cups in the last ten years and playoff births in most of the rest, no one expected the Nashville Predators to perform such a stunning shutout.

Not only did this come as a surprise to many fans, but ESPN’s main contributors also thought Chicago would win the first round of the playoffs.

After the Predators swept the Hawks, mascot Gnash jumped to his Twitter account and advised ESPN to “stick to basketball and social issues.”

Greg Wyshynski‏, the editor of Yahoo! Sports’ PuckDaddy blog, also chimed in noting that all the prognosticators at Yahoo! also gave short shrift to the Predators.

Clearly the Predators took the whole sports world by surprise with its amazing feat. Congrats to the Predators and we have our fingers crossed for a real Cinderella story. As for ESPN, maybe its time to stop interviewing wacked-out liberals like Michael Eric Dyson, and actually start paying attention to sports.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.