Watch any Predators game of late, and the body language of the players tells the whole story. Many players look defeated, frustrated, and bewildered by what continues to play out in front of them. One thing we can now put to bed is the once overused narrative comparing this season’s squad to the 2023-24 team that started the year 5-10-0 but managed to turn the season around and make the playoffs. As long as that comparison was remembered, the team and their fans could rest easy, knowing that the slow start wasn’t a big deal and that they could overcome it. Well, the Predators can no longer look back to last season for comfort – even though that excuse was flawed from the beginning. They should be, and seemingly are, in full panic mode.
The Predators embarked on an Eastern Canadian road trip where they played the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, and Ottawa Senators. They lost all three matchups, including a shutout by the Canadiens, a fellow basement dweller. This trip followed losses to the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Minnesota Wild. To recap, they have currently lost seven games in a row.
Nothing has gone right for the Predators. The team that should have a plethora of goal scorers seemingly cannot buy one. The Predators continue to sit at the bottom of the league when it comes to goals for per game. Looking at their roster, it’s unfathomable how badly they’ve performed. However, just watch the Predators, and you quickly see one of the major problems contributing to their offensive struggles. They struggle to enter the offensive zone efficiently, often looking unsure of what play to make, which commonly results in a turnover.
When they do manage to set up opportunities for themselves, the puck rarely makes it on goal. The Predators have been plagued with players missing the net – something that cannot happen, especially in high-danger areas. 35 percent of the Predators’ unblocked shots have missed the net this season.
Head coach Andrew Brunette jumbles the lines mid-game to try to find a spark almost every night. However, the result is the same, time and time again. The offense remains stagnant and lifeless. It wasn’t that long ago when the coaches said that the Predators needed to become more predictable to one another, resulting in them becoming more connected. Well, it seems the Predators are predictable – the opposition knows exactly what they are going to do. Simply clogging up the neutral zone gives the Predators fits trying to enter the offensive zone, forcing them to dump and chase the puck.
After the Predators’ morning skate on Saturday, Brunette acknowledged that they are struggling, but it also seemed that he had run out of answers and ideas.
“Everybody is aware we’ve been having a hard time winning hockey games, and I think the message today was let’s just have fun with the day and whatever happens, we’re not going to be in the playoffs tomorrow even if we win,” the head coach said. “Let’s just enjoy the game, play as best we can, and leave it out there. We can’t worry about what happened before; we just worry about today.”
Now, of course, we cannot expect a coach to go into full detail regarding the discussions in the locker room, but hearing “let's just have fun” seems to scream that there are no more new adjustments to make, no more ideas in the playbook.
One of the saving graces the Predators had when it came to goal scoring was their power play, but that has now also run dry. Since Nov. 20, the Predators have had the worst power play in the league, converting at just eight percent. Whether it is from watching film and figuring out what the Predators were doing well or some other reason, opposing teams have seemingly solved the Predators’ power play, sending Nashville’s man advantage spiraling. The team will need to make new tweaks and adjustments to special teams, but as we’ve seen, the answers seem nowhere to be found.
So, what happens next?
We haven’t even reached the Christmas break yet, and the NHL has seen several teams fire their head coach. Perhaps the most surprising firings were of Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery and Chicago Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson. The former was stunning because of the results Montgomery achieved with the Bruins a season ago, and the latter because the Blackhawks are still arguably in their rebuilding era. Showing Richardson the door during this phase – when the results were expected to be bad – may have been a little harsh.
Seeing Chicago make a change behind the bench caused all eyes to shift to Brunette. After all, Nashville and Chicago are the two worst teams in the entire league when looking at the standings. Brunette has more talent to work with than Richardson did, and it may be hard to argue otherwise. So, what’s Brunette’s excuse?
Luckily for Brunette, he has a boss who is a former coach himself. Barry Trotz is still new to the GM world, so he may still be a head coach at heart. Trotz also once said that he feels coaches receive too much blame for losses and too much praise for wins. Nashville is also not the type of franchise that has historically pulled the trigger on coaching changes early. Brunette is only in his second year behind the Predators’ bench. Typically, hockey head coaches in Music City receive at least a handful of seasons to show what they can do. So, it may be too early in Brunette’s tenure for the team to make a move.
However, we must remember that Trotz has bosses, too. He may not want to fire Brunette, but the people who sign the checks and recently doled out over $100 million in the offseason will want results.
With the moves being made around the NHL, the catastrophic lack of success the Predators have experienced this season, the team’s expectations, the absence of any signs of a turnaround, and the answers Brunette has to fix this, the walls might be closing in on Brunette – and he may know it.