Andrew Brunette admitted to experiencing plenty of “sleepless nights” over the past several weeks.
In his second season as head coach of the Nashville Predators (7-15-6), the team is last in the NHL in goals for per game (2.18) and has been shut out five times. The Predators have scored two goals or fewer in each of their seven consecutive losses.
With the losses mounting and the offense increasingly hard to come by, Brunette is left racking his brain for answers. It’s no wonder he hasn’t slept in weeks.
“I guess that’s been a little bit of the story most of the year,” Brunette said following team practice on Monday. “I think we’ve had really good offensive zone time, top five in the League. We deliver a lot of pucks, one of the top teams. They’re just not going in. We’re a little snakebitten right now.”
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After their first-round loss to the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring, the Predators embarked on arguably the biggest offseason in franchise history. On July 1, they signed forwards Steven Stamkos (four years, $8 million AAV) and Jonathan Marchessault (five years, $5.5 million AAV) and defenseman Brady Skjei (seven years, $7 million AAV) in free agency. The trio has combined for 14 goals through 28 games this season. To say the team is “a little snakebitten” is putting it lightly.
“We’re going to keep trying,” Predators captain Roman Josi said Monday. “We’re going to keep talking about it, keep trying to get better. Everybody wishes things would be different, but they’re not. So, we’ve got to find a way together, as a team, an organization, to get out of this.”
The Predators will look to snap their seven-game losing streak Tuesday, when they host the Calgary Flames at Bridgestone Arena. It seems strange to call a regular-season game in December a “must-win,” but that’s how it feels for this Predators team – and especially for Brunette.
Does the blame for the Predators’ early struggles fall squarely on Brunette? Of course not. But the reality is, NHL head coaches often become the sacrificial lambs for their teams’ failure to live up to expectations. After the Predators’ inexplicably bad start to a season that, by all measures, should have been better than the last, it’s reasonable to question Brunette’s job security in Nashville.
In his first season as head coach of the Predators in 2023-24, Brunette finished the season at 47-30-5 and was a finalist for the 2024 Jack Adams Award, given annually to the league’s coach of the year. Just a few months later, it feels as though his may be in peril. Three NHL head coaches have already been fired this season – Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins, Drew Bannister of the St. Louis Blues and, most recently, Luke Richardson of the Chicago Blackhawks. Could Brunette be next?
“I think in our business, we’re terminal, in my business anyways,” he said. “It’s just like all of us in life. I don’ t think we’re overly concerned about it. When it happens, it happens. In saying that, it is what it is. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s game. I think something’s bound to break, and hopefully it breaks tomorrow.”
The Predators will face off against the Flames Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
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