Everybody’s excited that we’re in this position right now.”įlorida is in this position rather than facing elimination in Game 4 on Saturday thanks in large part to Tkachuk, who also set up Brandon Montour‘s goal that opened the scoring less than five minutes in. “I felt great – I feel great,” Tkachuk said. That absence felt like a long time ago in the aftermath of another big win he was largely responsible for. The 25-year-old said he knew he was coming back when he left the game, pulled by concussion spotters. He then provided the screen on Carter Verhaeghe‘s OT goal for a 3-2 victory that cut Florida’s series deficit to 2-1. ![]() ![]() Tkachuk scored the tying goal with 2:13 left in regulation, forcing overtime and giving the Panthers new life. After looking as if he might be lost for the night, Tkachuk returned in the second and then came through with more of his now trademark playoff heroics. The Florida Panthers star left early in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final after a big hit from Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar, and he missed most of the first period and didn’t return immediately following intermission while being evaluated for a concussion. Matthew Tkachuk was down, out briefly and then back with plenty of time to make a difference. Upon his retirement, Brunette spent seven seasons with the Wild in various off-ice roles, including assistant coach and assistant GM, before being hired by the Panthers as an assistant coach in 2019-2020. Brunette is one of 25 players selected in the seventh round or later to appear in more than 1,000 NHL games. He finished with 268 goals and 733 points in 1,110 career games split among six teams, including two separate stints in Minnesota. The Predators missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years, and the first under Hynes, who took over as coach during the 2019-20 season after Peter Laviolette was fired.īrunette, who is from Sudbury, Ontario, spent 16 seasons playing in the NHL, ending with a one-year stint with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011-12. In Florida, Brunette coached a Panthers team that led the NHL with 337 goals and had the league’s fourth-best power-play unit. He will be great with our young players, and I know, because of his background as a player, he will connect well with our top, skilled players.” “He is as good of an offensive teacher and power-play coach as there is in the game today. “We want to become more of an offensive team and Andrew specializes on that side of the ice – he lived it as a player, and he coaches it as a coach, Trotz said. Trotz, meantime, has an eye on building on the Predators’ youth and offensively skilled players as he takes over as GM for David Poile, who is retiring at the end of June after 26 years overseeing the franchise. “It has been awesome to see how this city and its fanbase have grown since I played here and I look forward to continuing the legacy and the culture behind the bench that Barry cultivated that inaugural season.” “I feel like this is coming full circle for my career – from pulling on the jersey for the first time 25 years ago to returning now to take care of some unfinished business,” Brunette said in a statement. Their relationship goes back to 1993-94, when Brunette played under Trotz, who was head coach of the Washington Capitals’ American Hockey League affiliate in Portland, Maine. He becomes just the fourth coach in the history of a Predators franchise and returns to Nashville, where Brunette played for the Trotz-coached team during its inaugural season in 1998-99. Brunette finished second in the Jack Adams Award voting for the NHL’s coach of the year. He was promoted to interim coach of the Florida Panthers during the 2021-22 season and oversaw a team that set franchise records for wins (58) and points (122) in claiming the Presidents’ Trophy before being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. The 49-year-old Brunette spent the past season as a New Jersey Devils associate coach under Lindy Ruff and has previous head-coaching experience. The moves are the first being made by incoming general manager Barry Trotz and come about six weeks after the Predators missed the playoffs. NASHVILLE, Tenn.– The coaching shuffle in Nashville is complete, with Andrew Brunette officially hired as the Predators coach a little over 12 hours after the team announced that John Hynes was fired.
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