Ongoing feud intensifies between coaches Trotz and Laviolette

​Old friends no more…

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Ongoing feud intensifies between coaches Trotz and Laviolette
Twitter / New York Post

There are unwritten hockey rules when it comes to NHL head coaches and it seems like Nashville Predators’ Peter Laviolette has broken one, according to New York Islanders bench boss Barry Trotz. 

The Isles head coach wasn’t happy when Laviolette sent out his top power-play unit late in the third period on Tuesday while winning 8-3.

“I’ll see Peter maybe in the summer and we’ll discuss that a little bit,” Trotz told Newsday’s Andrew Gross on Thursday. “I wasn’t a big fan of that. It’s 8-3 and you’re putting your guys blasting pucks and you’re putting guys at risk. That’s fine. Everybody has their own way of doing it. I probably wouldn’t have done it that way.
“It tells me a lot about him.”

When the Preds benefited from a two-man advantage with less than four minutes left in the game, Laviolette summoned Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene - arguably Nashville’s top five players. It could’ve been a time for Laviolette to reward some bottom-six players with rare power-play time, but he opted to do the complete opposite. 

Pierre LeBrun agreed with Trotz’s point of view on Thursday night’s edition of Insider Trading. 

“There’s tradition in this game where you don’t do that. But here’s the Nashville perspective. They were ranked last in power playin the National Hockey League a year ago, and guess where they are now? All the way up to 26th. So I think the Predators feel that every opportunity that they’re going to get to work on that woeful power play, they’re going to take it. Bottom line is Peter Laviolette replaced Barry Trotz in Nashville, I don’t think these guys are sending season’s greetings to each other.”

Trotz still has a bone to pick with Laviolette. 

The funny thing is that Laviolette replaced Trotz in Nashville in 2014 when the latter was fired after a 16-year run. Anything to do with that? 

Source: TSN