Nashville Predators: An Open Letter to Peter Laviolette
By Matt Klett
What are the odds I run into Peter Laviolette the day after he gets fired? I was lucky enough to have a brief conversation with the former coach.
Coach Peter Laviolette took over the Nashville Predators at the start of the 2014-2015 season, and his reign ended earlier this week. It’s fitting to be leaving the team at the start of a new decade.
I can’t think of a single person who had the impact on Nashville or even the state over the last decade more so than Laviolette.
Laviolette put Nashville on the map and gave us a name in the hockey world, a team that went from no coverage to being the team with the most nationally televised games. He brought us two Central Division banners, a Western conference championship banner, a trip to the Stanley Cup Final and a Presidents Trophy. Not only did he give Nashville a name in the hockey world but he gave us hardware along with it.
His coaching record with Nashville over 451 games speaks for itself. He compiled 248 regular season wins, 32 playoff wins and a win percentage of a .616 win percentage. The elusive Stanley Cup banner is all he came short of in terms of accomplishments.
We constantly saw criticism of Laviolette this season, but even with the criticism was respect by the media. Everyone that interacted with Peter, daily, had nothing but respect for him.
Unfortunately good things never last and his time seemed to be up. The team was under-performing and not meeting lofty expectations over the last two seasons up to the current time. Usually the head coach, and their closest associates, go first.
On a positive note, after talking, he didn’t seem as if he wanted to move. Nashville is a great place and coach deserves to relax and enjoy all the good that he attributed to in this community.
Nothing bad should be said about coach Laviolette from this point forward, his system stopped working with our players skill set, but no matter what Peter Laviolette made a massive impact on the city of Nashville as well as the state of Tennessee and for that we thank him.
It would be shocking if Laviolette doesn’t quickly land back on his feet with another head coaching job next season. Hopefully he can take some off time from the sport and come back refreshed with his new team. Who knows? Maybe the expansion Seattle team is his next stop?