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Poile to ask Predators to kick smokeless tobacco habit

By Jim Diamond

A day after former baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn passed away as a result of an oral cancer he believed to have developed from years of using smokeless tobacco, Nashville Predators general manager David Poile was asked about use among the players on his team.

Unlike baseball players mostly of years past, hockey players don’t ply their trade with a gigantic wad of tobacco stuffed into one of their cheeks, as would a squirrel gathering nuts and seeds in preparation for a long cold winter.

For many of the NHL’s players, the first thing they do after coming off of the ice following practice or a game is to grab for a small round tin of chewing tobacco sitting on the shelf in their locker stall and throw a pinch between their lip and gum.

“We talk about it, absolutely,” Poile said. “I’ve actually got that down where we ask every year for guys not to do that. I don’t get it since I don’t do it, but not good, not good.”

The reality is that most players who use smokeless tobacco developed the habit or addiction long before they reached the game’s highest level, so getting them to stop after years of use is not easy.

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Some use it to satiate a nicotine addiction developed from smoking cigarettes. Players today are smart enough to realize that being seen smoking would not reflect very well on them, but the same stigma is not attached to the use of smokeless tobacco. Well, not yet anyway.

Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press did an extensive feature on the subject in late December of 2013. His piece detailing use among players in Manitoba illustrated the fact that a lot of them started using in their early to mid teens. It also pointed to the facts that coaches and administrators of leagues differed on exactly when use among players begins.

No matter the age that the players began using smokeless tobacco, their reasons for starting mirror those given for any other adolescent who picks up bad habits: boredom, peer pressure, and trying to fit in with an older crowd.

Turner quoted Mike Gordichuk, head coach and GM of the MMJHL’s Transcona Railer Express, as saying:

“When they see an NHL player do it and it’s accepted by the NHL, they’re going to do it. If you could clean it up at the NHL level it would filter down. There’s such a high respect from these kids, that’s what they’re aspiring to be, and they see guys like (Winnipeg Jets defenseman) Dustin Byfuglien do it, to them that’s OK.”

Gwynn’s public battle with cancer should speak volumes to those who may think that smokeless tobacco is a safe alternative to smoking. The American Cancer Society outlines the number of cancers and oral diseases that can result from smokeless tobacco use.

The number of players who do it would probably surprise most fans, but there is not a whole lot NHL teams can do about it. The league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NHLPA mentions tobacco just twice.

Article 25.1 states: “No Player shall be involved in any endorsement or sponsorship of alcoholic beverages (excluding malt-based beverages such as beer) and/or tobacco products.”

Exhibit 14 states: “The use of tobacco products while in the presence of fans in any arena or while attending any team function is prohibited.”

All Poile can do is make the request of his players, and that is exactly what he plans to do.

“Am I going to ask our players to not do it?” Poile said. “Yes. Absolutely.”

Seth Jones made a solid first impression on his new coach

By Jim Diamond

Early in the 2013-14 season, Peter Laviolette found himself with a whole lot more free time on his hands than he was anticipating having. The Philadelphia Flyers terminated Laviolette three games into the season, and having been already named one of Team USA’s coaches for the Sochi Olympics, Laviolette was given an opportunity to travel around the NHL scouting potential players for the American squad.

One of the players on Team USA’s radar was Seth Jones, a 19-year-old rookie defenseman with the Nashville Predators. Although Jones did not make the final Olympic roster, his and Laviolette’s paths would cross again in just a matter of months.

After a second consecutive season finishing out of the playoffs, Barry Trotz was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Predators. Nashville general manager David Poile selected Laviolette to succeed Trotz.

Laviolette was also chosen to lead Team USA at the World Championships in Belarus. Jones and fellow Predator Craig Smith were named to that team. The Americans finished outside of the medals in Minsk, but Laviolette gained some very valuable time with his two new charges.

“I think you always learn a little bit more about a player when you get to coach him; one because you get to have meetings with him, you get to talk to him just about the game or a situation or the next day or whatever it might be,” Laviolette said Sunday after his appearance at the Music City Sports Festival. “So right away, you get a better feeling and a better understanding of a player once you get to work with him from a coach-player relationship.”

Smith posted three goals and five assists in eight games played. He averaged 18:56 of ice time per game. Jones had two goals and nine assists, leading the Americans with 11 points. He also led the team in ice time, averaging 25:38.

While he didn’t come back to the US with a medal, Jones did return with multiple accolades. The Directorate named him the best defenseman in the tournament, he and Smith were both named as two of Team USA’s three best players by the coaches, and Jones was also named one of the tournaments all stars as voted by the media.

“Seth Jones got voted best defenseman in the tournament, and I’ll tell you he deserved every vote that was given his way because he was outstanding, he really was,” Laviolette told Sunday’s crowd. “To be able to help be a part of his future and watch him grow and develop into the player that he is going to be is something special for all of us; for me and for you and for the city of Nashville.”

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Like any rookie who makes the jump directly from junior hockey to the NHL, Jones had some ups and downs in his first season with the Predators. With a year of experience under his belt and the confidence of his coach behind him, Jones appears to be set up well for a successful sophomore season when it begins this fall.

“From an on-ice performance, you get to realize how valuable a guy like Seth is that can play 25-plus minutes and play them very well against other team’s best players,” Laviolette said. “And we used him in that role over there. That was a shutdown pair and a shutdown defenseman that we used to put out against the best players that the opponent had to offer that night. He thrived in that role and in that environment. He did a terrific job and had a great tournament.”

Laviolette has the reputation of coaching an up-tempo offensive game, and that type of game suits Jones’ strong skating and above-average on-ice vision.

With Nashville’s top defensive pair of Shea Weber and Roman Josi already set, Laviolette will likely not have to lean on Jones as much as he did in Belarus, but Jones’ continued progression may allow the Predators coaching staff to reduce some of the workload on the Weber/Josi pairing.

Barry Trotz headed to Washington, could Mitch Korn follow?

By Jim Diamond

With Monday’s official announcement out of the nation’s capital that former Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz has accepted the same position with the Capitals, the focus will now turn toward the staff that will assist him as he begins his tenure in Washington, and if the members of that staff would have an impact on Nashville’s coaches.

Washington’s website still lists Calle Johansson and Blaine Forsythe as its assistant coaches and Olie Kolzig as head goaltender coach. While who stands next to Trotz on the bench during games is important, the most immediate impact for the Predators may hinge upon whether or not Kolzig remains with the Capitals in the same capacity.

In his press conference the day it was revealed that Trotz would not be back with the Predators next season, he mentioned several members of the organization who he had worked with over the course of his 15 seasons in Nashville. It was an emotional day for Trotz, but the first time he got really choked up was when he mentioned the name of Predators goaltending coach Mitch Korn, who he referred to as “one of my best friends.”

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The day Peter Laviolette was named the second head coach in team history, Predators general manager David Poile was asked about Korn’s status going forward, and he said that the team had hoped to retain him, but to that point, Korn had not committed to returning.

It was widely believed that Korn would follow Trotz to his new destination but now that the destination is known to be Washington, it is certainly not a given that Korn will do so.

Kolzig just completed his first season as head goaltender coach in Washington. All but eight of his 719 games of NHL playing experience came in a Capitals uniform, and he owns virtually every one of Washington’s goaltending records. In short, he is a very popular member of that organization.

Known as Olie the goalie, Kolzig grew up in the Capitals organization, a process that started when Trotz, then a scout for Washington, discovered him during his days with the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League. The Capitals selected Kolzig 19th overall in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft.

Trotz and Kolzig were reunited when Trotz became a coach in the Capitals’ system in 1990, and the pair spent many years together in the minor leagues. In 1994, their Portland Pirates team won the Calder Cup as American Hockey League champions. Kolzig was named the most valuable player in the AHL playoffs that season.

Needless to say, Trotz and Kolzig are tight, so it would be difficult to see him pushing for a change when it comes to his goaltending coach, even if it means not bringing longtime friend Korn along with him to Washington.

Even if Korn does not go to Washington, it is no guarantee that he will return to the Predators though. With an expiring contract, he may be a very attractive free agent to other teams in need of his goaltending Yoda-like services.

As far as his other assistants are concerned, Trotz could look to some former colleagues who are on the market to join him in Washington. Trotz was not supportive of Poile’s decision to fire longtime assistant Peter Horachek last summer. After serving as interim coach of the Florida Panthers for part of last season, Horachek was cut loose by the team. Former Milwaukee Admirals coach Claude Noel has also been rumored to be in play to join Trotz or Washington’s AHL affiliate in Hershey, PA.

Budaj the ‘ultimate teammate’ as Canadiens back-up
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By Heather Engel

Be ready.

Those are the words NHL back-up goaltenders essentially live by, starts sometimes coming weeks apart while also being counted upon to step up in relief at a moment’s notice.

Peter Budaj has been just that for the Canadiens since joining the team as a free agent ahead of the 2011-12 season. With Carey Price firmly entrenched as the No. 1, the Slovak stopper has embraced his supporting role.

But, like any back-up, when the starter goes down, expectation is the No. 2 becomes the No. 1 in the interim. It’s what happened earlier in the season when Price was sidelined following the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. And while the results weren’t the best, he was without question the de facto starter.

So when Canadiens coach Michel Therrien opted to go with 24-year-old rookie Dustin Tokarski – who had never before played an NHL playoff game – over Budaj in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final, one could have understood the veteran having a rough time with the decision.

“We did talk to Peter [Monday] morning and he really reacted as a pro. He’s a good teammate,” Therrien said after the loss. “He understood our decision. We let him know the reason why. For sure for him it could be tough.”

That reason was Tokarski’s previous big-game pedigree, having won a Memorial Cup (2008), World Junior Championship gold medal (2009) and Calder Cup (2012). At 31, Budaj is still in search of his first post-season victory in eight appearances at the professional level – seven in the NHL, one in the AHL.

He does, however, boast 296 games of NHL regular season experience under his belt, a factor that many figured would tip the scales in his favor.

“He was awesome. He’s a professional,” Tokarski said. “He plays for the logo on the front, and everybody in here is. … He supported me all day.”

That Budaj, a former starter with the Colorado Avalanche, took it as well as he did wasn’t the least bit surprising to those that have spent at least seven months of the year with him the past few seasons.

“He’s the ultimate teammate. The ultimate teammate. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a teammate like him,” defenseman Josh Gorges said. “He comes to work every single day with a smile on his face – and his job isn’t easy. All year, to be a backup, you’ll never hear him complain. He’s always here for the team to be successful and for the team to be doing well, and that’s all that he cares about.

“He’s just a great man and a great teammate.”

Price’s status for Game 2 a mystery

By Heather Engel

Amelia Earhart’s disappearance, Carmen Sandiego’s whereabouts and the Caramilk secret have nothing on this around here.

No, in Montreal, the biggest mystery is the status of Canadiens goaltender Carey Price for Game 2 on Monday night.

Taken down in a crease collision with New York Rangers winger Chris Kreider in the second period of Game 1, Price didn’t participate in Montreal’s optional practice on Sunday. He did, however, briefly hit the ice with goalie coach Stéphane Waite an hour before practice.

“It was a therapy day (for Carey). We’ll see if he’s able to play tomorrow’s game,” head coach Michel Therrien said following his team’s short session on the ice.

Pressed further on the issue, Therrien maintained his stance.

“We’ll see. I can’t tell you that right now,” he said.

Price finished the second period despite appearing to hurt his right leg. He was replaced by back-up Peter Budaj to start the third, the Canadiens trailing 4-1 at that point. Therrien claimed the goaltending change had nothing to do with a potential injury to his starter but rather as a protective measure with the Canadiens not looking very sharp in front of him.

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It wouldn’t be a surprise if Price takes his option to forgo Monday’s morning skate, as he has regularly done on game-days this post-season. That would leave the pre-game warm-up as the earliest indication of whether or not he’ll play.

Canadiens left-winger Brandon Prust wasn’t too pleased with Kreider after the incident and made sure to let him know with a stick between the legs, a cross-check and a slash. Prust also picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct minor and a 10-minute misconduct.

“He went skates-first right into his leg,” Prust, a teammate of Kreider’s during the Rangers’ 2012 playoff run. “We know how to slide, we know how to fall. We’re in the NHL; we’re taught how to fall when we’re five years old and how to get back up.

“I don’t think he’s a dirty player but he did nothing to slow up or avoid him, at all.”

And it wasn’t the first incident of its type the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Kreider has been involved in this spring, he noted in reference to a collision with Marc-André Fleury in Game 6 of the Rangers’ series against the Penguins.

Therrien agreed that it didn’t appear to be intentional but that perhaps more effort could have been put in, in trying to avoid Price.

Not surprisingly, the Rangers saw things differently.

“I’ve never seen a hockey player that can score an important goal on a breakaway and would rather run into a goalie or figure out a way to hit a goalie. I mean, he’s trying to score a goal,” Brad Richards said. “If you’ve watched him, he’s a pretty fast, big player. When he gets going, it’s hard to stop sometimes.”

While Price’s status was as clear as mud on Sunday afternoon, Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault didn’t plan on preparing any differently as his team aims to grab a 2-0 series lead.

“I’m sure Price is going to be there, so we’re getting ready for him,” he said.

One situation looking a little clearer for Montreal is the impending return of forward Alex Galchenyuk. Sidelined since suffering a knee injury on April 9 in Chicago, the 20-year-old was cleared for contact on Friday. Therrien confirmed that day he would get a shot in the lineup but noted they wanted to be sure “he’s in the best shape physically, mentally” for the playoffs.

“He’s doing really good (in his recovery),” said Therrien on Sunday.

So, could he return for Game 2?

“It’s always a possibility,” he said.

Have turtle will travel; Laviolette anxious to get to Nashville

By Jim Diamond

Peter Laviolette was introduced to the Nashville media Wednesday afternoon, a day after he was named the second head coach in the history of the Nashville Predators.

Laviolette spoke to the media via conference call from his hotel room in Minsk, Belarus where he is serving as the top bench boss for Team USA at the upcoming IIHF World Championships. After a long day of travel from Germany, where his team played a tune up game against the German National Team Tuesday night, Laviolette said that he was anxious to put down roots in his new city.

His family is a direct representation of the nomadic lifestyle that coaches in professional sports and their families have to endure.

“My oldest son is a West Virginian, and my second son, he’s a Rhode Islander,” Laviolette said. “My daughter, who is 12-years-old, she’s a Long Islander, so she’s a New Yorker. My dog is a North Carolinian. And our turtle is a Philadelphian.”

A turtle you say?

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“The turtle’s name is Frank,” Laviolette said. “Frank was given to us by my my sister’s son, my nephew.

“When we got the turtle, he was about the size of a quarter, then when I actually looked him up online, I found out that he could grow to the size of a dinner plate. In the coaching profession, it’s good to be mobile, you can go from place to place, and I am thinking to myself, ‘What are we doing with this turtle? Why is this turtle ours?’ My daughter insisted that I love this turtle and it is part of the family, so the turtle’s name is Frank.”

And that may rank right up there among the best-ever answers to a turtle-related question of a National Hockey League coach.

While turtles are technically illegal to own as pets in Tennessee, one has to hope that Frank will be grandfathered in since he is an existing pet. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency stopped issuing permits for pet stores to sell them in 2012.

Surely they don’t want to disappoint a young lady who has grown so attached to Frank. And surely they don’t want to raise the ire of a guy who is willing to go after an opposing coach like this.

Imagine what would happen if he had to defend his daughter’s beloved pet.

Poile’s hiring of Laviolette capped a lengthy courtship

Tuesday, Peter Laviolette was named the second head coach in the history of the Nashville Predators.

To hear general manager David Poile speak about the end of Barry Trotz’s tenure and the start of Laviolette’s, it sounded a lot like the sporting equivalent of a relationship gone stale and one party in the relationship developed a wandering eye.

The storyline could mirror one of a daytime soap opera. Two people familiar with one another run into each other in the produce section of the grocery store, which evolves into stopping off for coffee, and it goes on from there.

It wasn’t as overt as Poile taking out a personal ad ask if anyone liked piña coladas or getting caught in the rain, but in all, it meant that Trotz’s tenure with the Predators would soon be over after 15 seasons with the team.

It started out innocently enough. David Poile was the general manager of Team USA for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games and Laviolette was one of the team’s assistant coaches. When the Philadelphia Flyers fired Laviolette just three games into the 2013-14 season, he had a lot more time on his hands to do some pre-Olympic work for Team USA.

“Obviously one of the things that favored Peter in this situation is that I’ve known him for a number of years based on a lot of our mutual work with USA Hockey and especially last year with the Olympics, naming him one of the three coaches, basically interviewing him at that point for that position and then getting to work with him all year long,” Poile said at his Tuesday afternoon press conference. “When he lost his job with Philadelphia after three games last year, I basically talked to him at least once or twice a week through that whole process. I used him as a conduit between myself and the coaches. So, subliminally, we had a general manager/coach relationship the whole year last year. As I said, I’ve interviewed a few people, but that’s one or two interviews. With Peter Laviolette, basically in some form, I was interviewing him all year long.”

Was Poile having thought bubbles of doubt all season long?

  • How he and Barry had been together for an awfully long time.
  • And his head coach has never won a Stanley Cup like Peter has.
  • This team can’t seem to score goals, but the teams Peter has coached have consistently found the back of the net.
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At Trotz’s press conference the day it was announced that he would not be back as head coach, he admitted that he could tell things were different between he and Poile. A late-season conversation told him everything he needed to know.

“I’ve been with David for 30 years, and he is wonderful,” Trotz said at the time. “He is a first-class guy and I knew he was hurting. I asked him a question and he got a little emotional like I did.”

It probably resembled that scene in the movie Airplane where a husband and wife are shown after dinner and the woman thinks to herself, “Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home,” or later when dinner had made him ill, she again thinks, “Jim never vomits at home.”

In all seriousness, Poile probably got the right man for the job. If anyone can fix the systemic offensive woes that have plagued the Predators over the years, he is the guy.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Poile indicated that Laviolette thinks that the pieces that are in place up front may just need a second chance under a new regime.

On an afternoon conference call, Predators forward Matt Cullen was excited for the opportunity to play for Laviolette again. Cullen played for him in Carolina, winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.

“I think he’s a great fit for our team and what we need going forward,” Cullen said. “I think a lot of Peter as a coach. He’s a good person and he just has a real ability to bring out the best in all of his players whether you are a fourth line guy or a first line guy or a first year guy in the league or a veteran.”

My 2013-14 NHL Awards Ballot

By Jim Diamond

As a proud member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, I again have the honor of casting my vote for five major end of season awards as well as the All-Star and All-Rookie teams.

 Below are the selections I made for the 2013-14 season.

 As you are reading them, please keep in mind the following:

  1. I do not hate your favorite team
  2. I do not hate your favorite player

There are many players worthy of inclusion in the voting for these awards. The beauty of this democratic system is that there are many voters and a lot of factors that go into their deciding where to slot the players in their voting. The continued growth of sites dedicated to advanced statistics (a.k.a fancy stats) has given voters much more information with which to evaluate the league’s players.

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Hart – To the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team

1. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

2. Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks

3. Semyon Varlamov, Colorado Avalanche

4. Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers

5. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

Norris – To the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position

1. Shea Weber, Nashville Predators

2. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins

3. Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks

4. Ryan Suter, Minnesota Wild

5. Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings

Calder – To the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition

1. Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche

2. Onrej Palat, Tampa Bay Lightning

3. Torey Krug, Boston Bruins

4. Olli Maatta, Pittsburgh Penguins

5. Tyler Johnson, Tampa Bay Lightning

Lady Byng – To the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability

1. Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche

2. Marcus Johansson, Washington Capitals

3. Teemu Selanne, Anaheim Ducks

4. Frans Nielsen, New York Islanders

5. Patrick Marleau, San Jose Sharks

Selke – To the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game

1. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

2. Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings

3. David Backes, St. Louis Blues

4. Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks

5. Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche

All-Star Team

Center

1. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

2. Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks

3. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

Right Wing

1. Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks

2. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

3. Phil Kessel, Toronto Maple Leafs

Left Wing

1. Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks

2. Taylor Hall, Edmonton Oilers

3. Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars

Defense

1. Shea Weber, Nashville Predators

2. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins

3. Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks

4. Ryan Suter, Minnesota Wild

5. Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings

6. Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues

Goaltender

1. Semyon Varlamov, Colorado Avalanche

2. Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins

3. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens

All-Rookie Team

Forward

1. Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche

2. Onrej Palat, Tampa Bay Lightning

3. Tyler Johnson, Tampa Bay Lightning

Defense

1. Torey Krug, Boston Bruins

2. Olli Maatta, Pittsburgh Penguins

Goaltender

1. Frederik Andersen, Anaheim Ducks

Sometimes good guys get fired

By Jim Diamond

As predicted in this space last week, Barry Trotz was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Nashville Predators Monday morning.

It happens. It is professional sports, where the dollars are high and the demands on coaches are intense and basically nonstop.

Whether or not he was the correct one to shoulder the blame for the team finishing out of the playoffs for two consecutive seasons is up for debate, but as good as Barry Trotz the coach is, Barry Trotz the man is even better.

Heck, this is a guy who would go an pick up new players at the airport if he was available to do so.

They will find another head coach – odds are that a list of candidates to be Trotz’s successor has already been selected by team general manager David Poile – but replacing Trotz in the community will be even tougher.

Trotz demanded a lot of his players on the ice, but he also demanded a lot of them off of it as well, especially in terms of being good citizens in the community in which they play.

And he didn’t just talk the talk; he walked the walk as well.

From the beginning of the franchise, Trotz and his wife Kim have donated $500 for each of the team’s wins to My Friend’s House, a Franklin-based organization that works with at-risk youth.

That is just one of the many organizations that he helped. He didn’t just act as the face of these charities either; he got in there and got his hands dirty as well.

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Trotz made sure that the silent auctions for various charity events were stocked with items. On road trips, he would bring jerseys and sticks for opposing players to sign, telling them about the charities that would benefit from the items.

As the parent of a special needs child with Down’s Syndrome, Trotz was front and center with Best Buddies, a charity that works to match up developmentally disabled people with non-developmentally disabled “buddies.”

Several Predators players past and present, including the likes of Pekka Rinne, Shea Weber, Dan Hamhuis, and others, all participate in the program and have buddies that they spend time with when they can.

Even though Hamhuis moved on to Vancouver a couple of years ago, he still visits with his buddy when the Canucks play in Nashville, bringing him to the games and taking him into the locker room postgame to meet the team.

For the last few years, Best Buddies has held a 5K run in Franklin. Trotz has encouraged all of the Predators’ front office staffers to participate in it, and all he asks is that they show up, since he picks up the tab for their entry fees.

When Trotz’s former associate head coach Brent Peterson wrote a book detailing his life in hockey and battle with Parkinson’s Disease, Trotz wrote a beautiful foreword for the man he stood next to on the bench for so many years.

I’ll share a personal story. When I moved into my current neighborhood, one of the neighbor kids told me that he was a big fan of the Predators. Like I do in all of these situations, I asked him who his favorite player was.

“I really like Greg Johnson,” he said, referring to the player who was the team captain at the time.

He paused for a second and said, “I really like coach Trotz too.”

That was a first, but what his father said after made it very clear as to why.

The dad and son ran into Trotz and his family at a movie theater one night. The kid apologized for imposing, but asked Trotz for his autograph. Trotz said that he would be happy to sign, but that he didn’t have anything with him to autograph.

Trotz then asked him for his name and address so that he could send him something. They gave the information to the coach and then went on their way. After moving along, the dad told his son not to get his hopes up about receiving anything.

Two days later, an envelope postmarked 501 Broadway arrived in the mail. Enclosed in the envelope was an 8 x 10 of the coach with a nice message to the kid written on it and signed Barry Trotz.

He was just as generous in his time with the media. I have been in hundreds of his press conferences, and he always had time to answer each and every question posed to him. And even when there were dumb questions, and believe me there were a lot of dumb questions, he answered just about all of them without blinking an eye. Trotz’s off the record chats were even better.

Speaking of press conferences, one night a couple of seasons ago, Trotz’s son Nolan was having a tough night and needed some time with his father, so Trotz brought him into the press conference and had Nolan sit right next to him as he answered questions from the media. It was a touching and beautiful moment. I remember that night’s game was against St. Louis, but I have no clue which team won the game that night. It doesn’t matter. The game was one of the season’s 82, but seeing how good of a dad Trotz is will stick with me forever.

The Predators will find a new head coach, but replacing Barry Trotz will be a near impossible task.

I would even go as far as to say it will be Predator hard to do it.

Barry Trotz out as Nashville’s head coach
By Jim Diamond
Barry Trotz, the only head coach in the history of the Nashville Predators, was relieved of his duties Monday morning, one day after the completion of the 2013-14 regular season, the second consecutive season that the Predators finished outside of a playoff spot. This information comes from a source close to ownership.
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Trotz’s contract is set to expire June 30th. The team held an option to extend the deal, but the longer that the option was not picked up, the writing became clearer and clearer that someone else would be behind the bench when the puck drops on the 2014-15 season in October.
 
Trotz was hired into the position August 6, 1997, more than a year before the team took to the ice for their inaugural season in 1998-1999.
 
Prior to his firing, Trotz was the longest tenured coach of all NHL teams, and second only behind San Antonio Spurs head coach Greg Popovich as the longest tenured in the four major North American sports.
 
Trotz was a two-time finalist for the Jack Adams Award, given annually to the league’s best coach.
This is a developing story and more information will be released as it becomes available.