Nashville Predators: Five Areas John Hynes Must Improve Upon Next Season

Fix (or at least improve) the power play

How many times have we heard this one by now?  Well, apparently, too few times because the Predators themselves seem to have not gotten the message.

To be fair, Hynes himself does not run the power play, but can control who his assistants are, and even put some necessary pressure on them.  One of those assistants is Dan Lambert, who, for the better part of his time on the Predators’ bench, has run an uninspired powerplay.

From the utter lack of creative passing and movement to the head-scratching deployments of the players on the ice, the team’s power play has been one of the most predictable in the NHL for the past two years (and longer), and Eeli Tolvanen’s injury in April exposed those deal-breaking flaws.

If you’re going to run a strict 1-3-1, would you not want to put your shooters where they can just fire one-timers immediately upon receiving the puck?

It goes without saying that the Predators will not be a threat without  a working power play in 2021-22, and Hynes either needs to tell Lambert to make some major adjustments, or bring in someone who can actually run a successful and dependable man advantage.