A Couple New Band Members

One change leads to another, and Nashville Predators general manager David Poile made a major change yesterday by dismissing head coach Peter Laviolette. With there being a couple of vacant jobs that needed to be filled, Poile went out and filled those positions today, and then went and made a trade that, for the most part, is a minor move, but it's a move nonetheless. If Nashville needed a wake-up call, the last twenty-four hours have been a reveille for this squad. The only question that remains now is whether or not these changes will be reflected in the standings and the Predators' point total.

We'll start with that vacant head coach position that David Poile needed to fill, and he brought in former New Jersey Devils head coach John Hynes to replace Peter Laviolette. Hynes' hiring may have raised eyebrows considering how poorly the Devils played this season, but there's a history between Poile and Hynes as Hynes has a long history of coaching for Hockey USA while Poile has filled management roles with the US national program. Clearly, Poile is familiar with Hynes, and he seems confident that Hynes will be the right guy to right the ship in Nashville.

"He has a great track record of both effectively developing younger players and successfully motivating veteran players," Poile stated at the press conference announcing Hynes as the new bench boss. "We're confident that he’s the guy to cultivate a winning culture in our locker room."

Poile, if you'll recall, also dismissed associate coach Kevin McCarthy along with Laviolette, so there was also an assistant coach's position open. Poile announced that former NHL defenceman Rob Scuderi, part of the Predators hockey operations department currently, will move to become an interim head coach alongside Hynes. Scuderi and Hynes both were part of the Pittsburgh Penguins system at different times, and Hynes was an assistant coach in Hockey East at UMass-Lowell when Scuderi spent his final season at Boston College.

These two guys will have to come together quickly as the Predators have a date with the Boston Bruins tonight, so we'll see if the team gets a boost from the coaching change by having the players come out and play for their jobs with the new eyes behind the bench.

The other move that Poile made today was an AHL move as he traded underachieving Laurent Dauphin to the Montreal Canadiens for overhyped Michael McCarron. Neither player has given their NHL clubs any reason to open a roster spot for them despite McCarron being the 25th-overall pick and Dauphin being the 39th-overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Perhaps this trade will benefit both men in terms of changes of scenery, but this move doesn't seem to have any immediate impact on the current rosters of either the Montreal Canadiens or the Nashville Predators.

In any case, the vacant positions are now filled, and the Predators can focus on playing a very good Boston team that was coming into Nashville off a pair of losses. You know Boston won't be pleased to lose three in a row, so expect the Bruins to come out ready to roll. Will Nashville use the coaching changes to give them the spark to down the Bruins? We'll find out tonight.

There was zero time for Hynes to start molding this team to his fit, but he'll get a good look at who he has to work with and, perhaps, what he needs to fix tonight. Time will certainly tell us whether or not David Poile made the right changes for the Predators.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!