Head Coach – John Hynes
The start of the Nashville Predators season has been terrible for lack of better term. To this point of the season, it appears as though the biggest issue could be behind the bench. The 2021-2022 NHL season saw Coach Hynes take the Predators, a team that no one said would make the playoffs at the beginning of the season, to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Nashville Predators played with drive and grit all season long even though they had an early exit in the first round.
The summer of 2022 saw the Nashville Predators add to their roster and build it to be a Stanley Cup contender during the 2022-2023 season. Now, some of the issue in general has been the play on the ice but Head Coach John Hynes has not helped the situation at all. It appears as though he took everything that worked during the 2021-2022 season and threw it out the window.
Through 18 games played the teams power play ranks 29th in the league at 16.2%, the penalty kill is still decent ranking 10th at 80%, the Predators rank 20th in shots faced per game, largely in part to their lack of offensive zone time.
Coach Hynes cannot seem to put a solid lineup together for consecutive games. Very rarely are lines paired up the same way each game which prevents them from building chemistry and having on ice success. If the Predators want to turn the season around, be successful, and have a chance at making the Stanley Cup Playoffs, something behind the bench has got to change, and it needs to change soon before the Preds fall even further in the standings.