Nashville's David Poile did something he has rarely done in nearly 40 years as a general manager: He made a mid-season coaching change after being fed up with the Predators underachieving.
Poile hired former New Jersey Devils coach John Hynes as the third coach in franchise history Tuesday, less than 24 hours after firing Peter Laviolette. The Predators announced the hiring Tuesday before a morning skate in preparation for their home game against Boston, after which Nashville embarks on a three-game road trip.
Poile said the Predators are much better than they have performed this season with some players way playing below their potential or the team's expectations.
鈥淔or me personally, this has been the hardest year that I've ever had because we have been totally unable to meet expectations for ourselves on the ice ...,鈥� Poile said. 鈥淭here's been a lot of criticism of our play. There has been a lot of inconsistencies with our play. So many games that we've played this year I felt we were going to win the game, and for whatever happened that win and that point was taken away from us.鈥�
Poile fired Laviolette and associate coach Kevin McCarthy on Monday after the Predators (19-15-7) had dropped four of five games. They are 11th in the Western Conference standings with 45 points.
This marked the sixth NHL coaching change of the season.
Hynes, 44, was 150-149-5 as head coach with the New Jersey Devils, who fired him Dec. 3 despite signing him to a multiyear extension last January. He was let go after a 9-13-4 start that left New Jersey in last place in the Metropolitan Division and with the NHL鈥檚 second-worst record.
Poile was not deterred by Hynes' recent struggles, saying the coach is a great leader.
鈥淗e has a great track record of both effectively developing younger players and successfully motivating veteran players," Poile said. "We鈥檙e confident that he鈥檚 the guy to cultivate a winning culture in our locker room.鈥�
New Jersey hired Hynes before the 2014-15 season, and he led the Devils to six more points than in their previous season. He guided the Devils to the 2018 playoffs for the first time since 2012 in a season when Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy for scoring a career-best 93 points in 76 games. Hynes also helped develop Nico Hischier, the No. 1 overall pick in 2017.
Hynes has spent time in the AHL as head coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for five seasons after being an assistant coach. He also spent nine seasons on the staff of the USA Hockey National Team Development program, including as head coach from 2003-09 working with players like Patrick Kane, Jimmy Howard, Phil Kessel, Jimmy Hayes and Jason Zucker.
鈥淭he Nashville job is special,鈥� Hynes said. 鈥淚鈥檓 very excited to be able to work with this team. It鈥檚 very talented, it鈥檚 well built. There鈥檚 a lot of different dimensions, and it comes from an extremely successful tradition.鈥�
The native of Warwick, Rhode Island, coached the Americans to gold at the 2004 World Junior Championship, their first medal there since 1997.
Poile also announced that long-time NHL
Laviolette went 248-143-60 in 5 1/2 seasons with Nashville, reaching the playoffs each of his first five seasons. The Predators lost to Pittsburgh in six games in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. They won the Presidents' Trophy and made it to the second round of the playoffs in 2018. They were eliminated in the first round a year ago.
Captain Roman Josi said it's always sad to see men like Laviolette and McCarthy go what they did to help Nashville reach new heights in the past couple seasons.
"Now it鈥檚 a wake-up call for us players,鈥� Josi said.
Poile traded
鈥淚 know we all feel bad in here that we didn鈥檛 do what we needed to do to be where we should be at, but no time to have our heads down,鈥� Duchene said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a big game against a really hot team (Tuesday night). We鈥檙e not too far out, lots of games in hand, so we鈥檝e got to make it count right now. Half a season left.鈥�
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Jim Diamond, The Associated Press
