Nashville Predators

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.

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.

Barry Trotz wants Carter Hutton to get to 20 wins

By Jim Diamond

If all goes according to Barry Trotz’s plan, Carter Hutton will get the start in goal Sunday night in Nashville’s season finale in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild.

The Predators were eliminated from playoff contention with Tuesday’s shootout loss in Dallas, so this will be the last time the 2013-14 Predators take to the ice together. When Hutton leads the team onto the Xcel Energy Center playing surface Sunday, he will be looking for win number 20 on the season.

Trotz sees the 20 wins as more than just a number.

“I’d like to see Carter get 20,” Trotz said Friday when announcing that Pekka Rinne would start Saturday and Hutton Sunday. “If you can get 20 wins in this league as a goaltender, he came in as the backup goaltender, I don’t think you are going to find too many guys that do that. That’s a goal that I would like to have for him and I think that he would like to have himself. That’s like a 20-goal scorer; you’re a 19-goal scorer, almost a 20-goal scorer, you’d like to be that 20-goal scorer.”

Entering Sunday, there are 23 goaltenders with more wins than Hutton this season. All but one of those netminders, Anaheim’s Frederik Andersen being the lone exception, have more games played and games started than Hutton.

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Signed in the offseason to a one-year, two-way contract to be Rinne’s backup, it didn’t appear that Hutton would see a whole lot of action. Rinne was coming off hip surgery performed at the conclusion of last season, but was expected to carry his normal heavy workload this season. That plan was derailed in late October, when Rinne developed an E. coli infection in that same hip, which kept him sidelined until late in the season.

Hutton, who entered the season with just one game of NHL experience, was thrust into the starting role. With their world-class goaltender coming off of a major offseason surgery, relying on him to carry his traditional amount of games was probably shortsighted of the team’s brass going into the season, having such an NHL neophyte second in line behind Rinne, but that was the path they chose.

Rookie Marek Mazanec was recalled from Milwaukee and Trotz looked for consistency from both of his goaltenders as the team struggled through the early months of the season.

“Carter and Maz, we couldn’t give them any confidence, confidence has to be earned,” Trotz said. “They had to earn the confidence of our team, and their play was so inconsistent. Carter could give you one good game, but he couldn’t give you three in a row. Maz could do the same. If you watched them, I tried to ride one for a while and that wouldn’t work, so I would go back to the other one and he’d get one game and he’d get two games, and then we would have a crash. I could have flip-flopped them. I tried a little bit of both and it really was a moving target.”

It should be noted that for a majority of the season, the team struggled to give either of those goaltenders much help in the form of goals scored. The recent offensive explosion the team has experienced is in stark contrast to what they achieved for most of the season, so placing the blame for the team’s struggles only on the goaltenders would be inaccurate.

But with the Predators now scoring goals, and Hutton finding some consistency in his game, he has a chance to finish the season with an impressive 20 victories. That’s not a bad statistic for Hutton’s resume, as he is slated to be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

All signs point to end of Trotz’s tenure behind Nashville bench

By Jim Diamond

Tuesday night’s shootout loss in Dallas officially eliminated any slim hopes that a late season rally could vault the Nashville Predators into the playoffs after a largely disappointing season.

For the second consecutive year, no postseason hockey will be played at Bridgestone Arena, and that is not setting well with anyone connected to the team. Coming off of seven playoff appearances in eight seasons, that is unacceptable and steps will be taken to end that slide.

The offensively challenged team failed to score enough goals, and when Pekka Rinne was sidelined in late October due to an E. coli infection, the season was pretty much lost.

Earlier this season, the Predators’ ownership group asked general manager David Poile for a three-year plan per an ownership source. It’s not a tremendous leap to conclude there is major concern when a typically hands-off ownership group steps in to ask how the ship plans to be righted.

An owner, or ownership group in this case, does not all of a sudden ask the man in charge of their hockey operations for such a plan if things are going well and they have no concern about the direction of the hockey club.

This plan is a de facto message to Poile that they do not like the fact that the team has failed to reach the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Asking for a plan was ownership’s way of letting him know that things need to change.

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Head coach Barry Trotz’s contract expires June 30th.

Doing a little math with this information, it is pretty reasonable to come to the conclusion that Trotz’s tenure behind the Nashville bench will come to an end following Sunday’s season finale in St. Paul against the Wild.

Trotz is no dummy, and being a “lame duck” head coach all season has spoken loudly enough to him that the writing was on the wall that his ouster was coming. Things haven’t been great between Poile and Trotz since last offseason, when Poile fired associate coach Peter Horachek against Trotz’s wishes.

The failure to reach the playoffs these last two seasons has a significant trickle down economic effect throughout the organization. A ‘meh’ on-ice product has led to a noticeable level of apathy among the people who write checks to the Predators – those highly cherished season ticketholders.

Renewals are down despite the organization offering ticketholders what one marketing insider described as “everything but a ride to the rink” if they renewed.

If they still have that Grand Avenue sponsorship, maybe they should try and work something out with them to do just that. Renew season tickets, go grand, just relax, enjoy life, and expect luxury. Everyone wins, right?

By parting ways with Trotz, Poile buys himself some time. Let’s face it, when ownership is looking for change, if you are not the one who makes it, you are likely the one who will be changed. The non-hockey side of operations has the ear of ownership just as much as Poile and his crew do, and they are doing more than whispering their ideas on how things should be changed to the owners.

Home playoff games are cash windfalls to teams, and having a combined total of zero of them over the course of two years hurts. That pain will become even more of a reality when the time will come this summer to scratch out another $13 million check to team captain Shea Weber when the latest installment of his signing bonus comes due.

With Trotz’s contract expiring, Poile is not putting the owners in the position of having to pay two coaches at once; the jettisoned head coach as well as a new one, so the timing on this works well in that respect.

A new head coach will give those in charge of selling tickets an opportunity to tell potential buyers that this will be a new generation for the team and that they should get on board with the new exciting brand of hockey that they will say said new coach will bring with him.

The main problem for those ticket sellers is that the players who will pull on those Predators gold jerseys 41 times at Bridgestone Arena in 2014-15 will largely be quite similar to those who did so this season. They are locked into some bad contracts, up front especially, that will be difficult to get out of before the puck drops in October. And going to ownership asking for permission to buy out another contract, as they did with Hal Gill last summer, will not look great on Poile, who is already walking on thinner ice than he ever has in his time as general manager with the Predators.

Now this group of Predators could be good; hell they have looked like world-beaters the last few weeks, but betting on consumers to open up their wallets for a roster that looks eerily similar to the current one is a pretty big gamble.

It’s a gamble they are going to make. That gamble means someone other than Trotz will be the team’s head coach for the first time since the franchise entered the league.

A fresh start may be attractive to Trotz too. He is highly regarded around the league, and there will likely be several coaching vacancies that he will immediately become the top candidate for when pink slips begin to be issued this weekend.

Concussed Predators Jones and Gaustad close to returning to game action

By Jim Diamond

As the Nashville Predators prepare for their upcoming three-game road trip, which begins Friday in Anaheim, the team looks to be getting two players back into the fold. Both defenseman Seth Jones and center Paul Gaustad, each sidelined with concussions, have rejoined the team in practice and appear to be set to return to the active roster.

The team announced Wednesday that both players will make the trip out west.

Jones has been out since late in the first period of March 23rd’s game in Chicago when the Blackhawks’ Andrew Shaw hit him close to the boards at center ice.

Jones participated in last Sunday’s morning skate, but he did not play in that evening’s game against the Washington Capitals. Following Tuesday’s practice at Centennial Sportsplex, Jones said that he had received full clearance from the team’s medical staff to return to game action.

“Never been better,” Jones said. “I feel great. I’m excited to get ramped back up here and play the rest of the season.”

Predators head coach Barry Trotz was non-committal when asked how Jones would be used or who would come out of the lineup.

“It will be game-to-game,” he said. “We will see where Seth is come Friday. There’s no guarantee that he automatically goes in. He’s healthy, so we will play it as we go along here.”

The Predators have not played since Sunday’s shootout win over the Capitals. Jones thinks the team’s rare four-day break between games may be beneficial to him.

“It’s kind of nice,” he said. “You can’t just get right back into games when you are hurt like that, so it was kind of nice to get in a couple of practices before we have a game.”

Gaustad rejoined the team at Wednesday’s practice. He has been out of the Nashville lineup since taking a hard hit by Alex Edler March 9th in Vancouver.

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“It was good,” Gaustad said following Wednesday’s practice. “We’ve progressed pretty well with everything. The next step is just getting totally cleared by the doctors and hoping for the game in Anaheim.”

After Friday’s game in Anaheim, the team turns right around and plays Saturday night in San Jose. Should he be cleared, Gaustad could be counted on to counter the highly skilled forwards that the Ducks and Sharks both possess.

“He’s a pretty useful player for us,” Trotz said. “He plays in a lot of different situations. He’s a big body. He kills penalties, takes important draws, a real character guy in our room and on our bench. It will be nice to have him back.”

As with Jones, Trotz was unsure Wednesday as to how or when Gaustad would be used on the upcoming trip.

“They are both going to go on the trip, and I am not quite sure that I am going to play them in the first two games,” Trotz said. “I might play them in one instead of both just because they are coming back from concussions and when you come back from those, from that standpoint, sometimes it’s hard to catch a train right out of the gate; back-to-back might be a little bit tough.”

Rich Clune reached out to Patrick Wey following Sunday’s fight

By Jim Diamond

Sitting at his locker stall at Centennial Sportsplex following Tuesday’s practice Rich Clune’s right hand bore some abrasions left over from a recent fight.

Just over eight minutes into the first period of Sunday night’s game, Clune skated up ice and was hit into the boards at the red line between the benches by Washington defenseman Patrick Wey. Following the hit, some words were exchanged and then the two dropped the gloves.

Clune’s helmet quickly fell off while the two traded punches early in the scrap. Wey’s remained on his head. Several of Clune’s punches appeared to connect with the visor affixed to Wey’s helmet, which likely caused the damage Clune’s hand was sporting Tuesday.  

At the end of the fight, Clune landed a right uppercut that connected squarely with Wey’s jaw. Wey dropped to the ice immediately and stayed there for a while until assistance arrived. He was able to skate off the ice on his own, albeit with some difficulty.

“I didn’t like it,” Clune said. “When you get engaged in a fight, obviously anything can kind of happen. I’m not going to cry alligator tears. It is a sport, a combat sport. I didn’t realize that the kid went out and I was concerned for him for sure.”

Fighting is part of Clune’s game, and while injuries such as the one Wey sustained are rare, there is always the possibility that one will occur when the gloves are dropped.  

Clune obtained Wey’s phone number and sent him a text message. Clune said Tuesday that Wey responded to that message, and said he appreciated the fact that Clune reached out to him.

Per hockeyfights.com, Clune’s 16 fighting majors are just three behind Tom Sestito for this season’s league lead. Again per hockeyfights.com, Sunday’s fight was Wey’s first in the NHL. His only other fight in their database took place January 21, 2009 when Wey was in the United States Hockey League.  

Clune saw 10:46 of ice time in Sunday’s game, the third consecutive game in which he received double-digit minutes. Predators head coach Barry Trotz liked how Clune responded in the aftermath of the fight.

“He’s been doing it long enough, that’s part of the role,” Trotz said. “Just as when it happens to you, I think you’ve got to blank it out and forget about it. We talk about having that short-term memory; I think that’s what those guys do.”

The Washington Post reports that Wey will not be in Washington’s lineup Tuesday night, quoting Capitals head coach Adam Oates as saying Wey is, “still not feeling great.”

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Zamboni breakdown delays start of shootout in Predators-Capitals game

By Jim Diamond

When all else fails, they tried the broken down Zamboni trick on them, and it worked.

After 60 minutes of regulation and another five minutes of the 4-on-4 overtime were not enough to decide Sunday night’s game between the Nashville Predators and the Washington Capitals, the game headed to a decisive shootout.

As per the NHL’s protocol, the Zamboni’s came out onto the ice to do a dry scrape of the middle of the Bridgestone Arena ice prior to the commencement of the tiebreaker.

There was just one problem. One of the Zambonis got stuck just inside the Nashville blue line, the end where the Capitals were to take their attempts on Carter Hutton, Nashville’s goaltender in the game.

The ice crew quickly got the stalled ice resurfacer started, but the malfunction left a large pile of snow in the breakdown spot. Crew members armed with shovels and large garbage pails took to the small mountain of ice that was close to being big enough to send patrons scrambling for their nearest Publix or Kroger looking for sufficient supplies of bread and milk in order to make it through the perceived emergency.

“That’s John Holmes and Scooter,” Predators head coach Barry Trotz said about members of the ice crew with a laugh after the game. “Delay, delay, delay, dump snow all over the place.”

The Predators have had almost no luck in shootouts this season, winning just one and losing the eight others they had participated in prior to Sunday night.

Whether or not the Zamboni stall was a planned tactic or not, it worked. All three Capitals shootout participants came up empty on their attempts. Evgeny Kuznetsov went first and missed wide with his shot. Mikhail Grabovski and Nicklas Backstrom both had their shots stopped by Hutton.

Craig Smith scored the lone goal in the shootout, conveniently enough at the end of the ice that did not have Zamboni problems.

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And good news concerned Zamboni fans, both were working fine after the game as the crew cleaned the ice before leaving for the evening.

Hard work and dedication led to Mark Van Guilder’s NHL debut

By Jim Diamond

Mark Van Guilder got the best news of his life early Saturday, so of course, he wanted to share that news with those closest to him.

His first call to his girlfriend went unanswered. He called his mom and she was busy. Then he tried his father.

“He was fishing and I said, ‘Hey dad, what’s going on?” Van Guilder said. “He said, ‘Hold on a sec, hold on a sec. I’ve got a fish on the line,’ so he put me on hold real quick. Then I told him and he was pretty excited.”

It should be noted that the Van Guilders are from Minnesota, where it is perfectly acceptable to put someone on hold due to a fishing-related reason.

Van Guilder celebrated his 30th birthday January 17th. It was an off day for the Milwaukee Admirals spent traveling between San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the less than glamorous manner in which American Hockey League teams get from city to city.

Per hockey-reference.com, Van Guilder will become just the 129th skater to make his NHL debut after their 30th birthday.

To prove what a ruthless place an NHL locker room can be, one of Van Guilder’s teammates accused him of being 45 following Sunday’s skate.

Ever since completing a solid four years at the University of Notre Dame in the spring of 2008, Van Guilder has spent his time in both the AHL and ECHL. Van Guilder has made 443 regular season and playoff game appearances for the Milwaukee Admirals, Hamilton Bulldogs, and Cincinnati Cyclones all the while keeping alive the dream that one day he would make it to the NHL.

“If you would have told me five or six years ago that I’d play a game in the NHL, I probably would have laughed at you,” Van Guilder said after Sunday’s morning skate. “I think I fell in a great situation with this organization. I’ve been pretty fortunate with the coaching staff and players that have been around me. It’s been kind of a work in progress, but it’s worth it.”

Just this season, he has seen teammates not yet of legal drinking age in the United States called up to Nashville. It didn’t matter. He just kept grinding along. That’s what he does. That’s why the Predators signed the Roseville, Minnesota native to a two-year, two-way deal last offseason.

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In 66 games this season with Milwaukee, Van Guilder has equaled a career high in goals with 14 and added 14 assists.

“It’s a great story,” Predators coach Barry Trotz said. “One of the things I think that we try to do right here in Nashville is send the right message, and he’s a guy that has worked his way up through the Coast League, and he’s been a great leader down in Milwaukee for our young guys.”

Trotz also noted that Joel Ward, now playing for the Washington Capitals, who the Predators play Sunday night, took a similarly long route to get to the NHL.

“I get extra pleasure out of seeing guys get that opportunity because they’ve earned that opportunity to come up,” Trotz continued. “They haven’t been entitled. They haven’t been high draft choices or anything. They’ve just worked at their game to get better and been pros no matter what the circumstance. To me, that is something that we don’t put enough substance to at times and give enough credit to those types of individuals.”

Early Saturday, Van Guilder realized all of the three games in three night battles, long bus rides, and terrible road food were all worth it when he was told about the recall at the tail end of a routine team meeting in Milwaukee.

“Coach (Dean) Evason was just kind going over different points; the weekend, the game the next day, and then he said, ‘Oh yeah, one more thing, Van Guilder is going to Nashville,” Van Guilder said. “It just caught me off-guard, but I think he was just having fun with it. It was pretty awesome. Just the reaction of my teammates was the best part.”

Van Guilder did finally talk to his family members and friends and has a caravan of sorts coming down to watch his NHL debut Sunday night. His girlfriend made it, his sisters are coming, his brother is bringing his family, and some other friends are coming as well. Unfortunately his dad has to work, so he will be watching at home. Van Guilder did mention that they had to lie to his mother about having enough flight points to get her here for free or else she might not have come. That’s an acceptable lie in this case without question.

The recall may just be for one day. The Predators don’t play again until Friday, giving their wounded forwards some time to heal. Even if Van Guilder is back in Milwaukee on Monday, he still will have achieved that goal of making it to the NHL. No matter how long it took or how hard he had to work to get there, it was worth it. It is something that no one will ever be able to take away from him.

That smile on his face proves it.

Predators recall triumphs and heartbreaks of NCAA tournament

By Jim Diamond

Friday night marks the start of the NCAA’s Division I collegiate hockey tournament. No, Warren Buffett is not offering a billion dollars to anyone who fills out a perfect bracket. Since just 16 teams get in, all of the 16 in the draw are sweet, and the level of excitement far exceeds that of college hockey’s basketball-playing brethren.

Following this weekend’s action, just four teams will remain and advance to Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, site of this year’s Frozen Four.

Several Nashville Predators came through the college ranks, and many of them got to experience the range of emotions related to playing for college hockey’s national championship. The old saying ‘It’s not hockey, it’s playoff hockey,’ takes on a different kind of intensity in college since there are no multi-game series like the NHL. The lose and you go home format of the games can make a season’s worth of work come to an immediate halt should you be on the losing end of a tournament game.

“It’s a great time of year,” Predators forward Eric Nystrom said. “There’s always a great buzz when you are playing those games. It’s that one and done format, so you’ve got to make sure that you are ready to go.”

During his time at the University of Michigan, Nystrom made Frozen Four appearances in 2002 and 2003. Those two trips both ended in disappointment, with the Wolverines being ousted in the semifinals by the University of Minnesota, both games ended 3-2 with the 2003 loss coming in overtime.

Though the bitterness of defeat still exists more than ten years after the fact, Nystrom is able to look back fondly on the two regional victories had enabling Michigan to advance to those Frozen Fours.

“We had a couple of regionals that we actually hosted at home at Yost,” he said referring to Michigan’s home arena. “We played both years in the second game to go to the Frozen Four. We played the number one seed and we knocked them off in our own building to go to the Frozen Four. To this day, it was 7,000 people, but that was the loudest I have ever heard a hockey arena. It was incredible.”

Colin Wilson is the only current Predator to have won a national championship. In 2009, Wilson’s second and final year at Boston University, the team traveled to Washington, D.C. and won an overtime thriller over Miami University in the championship game. In that tilt, the Terriers trailed by two goals with less than a minute remaining in regulation time before rallying for a 4-3 win.

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“It is very exciting,” Wilson said. “If you win the national championship, it’s a feeing that you don’t get too often. You want to win at high levels. It was a very cool feeling.”

In order to advance to the championship game, Boston University had to survive another tight game just to make it to the final. That game was played against the University of Vermont, a team that featured Viktor Stalberg on its roster. The Terriers took that one 5-4.

Following Wednesday’s practice at Bridgestone Arena, Stalberg overheard Wilson discussing 2009’s triumph and couldn’t resist the urge to chirp his current teammate.

“So lucky,” Stalberg said.

Stalberg pointed out that the Catamounts were up two goals late in the third period, but Boston University got a couple of quick goals to grab the win. Now that they are teammates, Stalberg just has to look over a couple of locker stalls to be reminded of the anguish of that game since Wilson was the one who netted the game winner at 14:19 of the third period.

2009 was just the second-ever Frozen Four appearance for Vermont.

“It’s one of those things that you strive for in college,” Stalberg said. “For a lot of guys who don’t move on, it’s probably the biggest thing that they experience. It was a great way for me to finish my college career.”

Wilson broke the heart of more than just one future teammate that year though. In the Hockey East championship game, BU downed the University of Massachusetts-Lowell by a score of 1-0, costing the River Hawks the automatic berth into the NCAA tournament that went along with winning the Hockey East crown.

Although he didn’t play in that championship game, Carter Hutton was a member of that Lowell squad.

Hutton still keeps a close eye on his alma mater and he is excited about the River Hawks being included in this year’s field.

After this weekend’s action, the 16 teams will be paired down to just the four who will head to Philadelphia in two weeks. The small field and the intense action each and every shift are just part of what makes this tournament great.

“Everyone goes all out,” Stalberg said. “It’s what college is all about. You don’t play as many games as you do in other leagues, so you have to go after it every time you are out there.”