Nashville Predators Quarterly Report Card: Much Improved

Coaching: C+ (Q1: D, Q2: D-)

I’m going to keep it real for a second: grading a coach is almost entirely on perception, with really the only stat to measure being the record.

The Predators started rocky, got rockier, but then found themselves on an absolute tear.

I was one of the many who called for the firing of John Hynes, and while I’m very impressed with what the team has done since the halfway point of the season, I’m still not fully sure he’s the long term solution that fits the team’s needs.

All that said, I will give credit where credit is due – Hynes clearly deserves to finish out the season, and maybe just maybe he deserves a full (and somewhat normal) off-season and regular season in 2021-2022 for us to truly evaluate where he stands.

As of late, the team is buying into his system, if you can call it that, but what is clear is that the locker room hasn’t been lost. This team looks to believe in itself and trust one another.

The Predators have played an astounding 12 rookies at some point in the season, and still, the team finds buy-in, and the rookies may speak more to the spark than coaching.

Regardless, Hynes has the team in playoff position, and that’s certainly something we didn’t anticipate coming out of the first half of the season.

As they say, it’s not how you start, but how you finish, and the home stretch of 2021 is going to be a wild ride, to say the least.