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Barry Trotz Announces Retirement & Winter Olympics Preview · Predators Official Podcast

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Welcome to the Predators official podcast streaming on
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YouTube here on 102.5 The Game and wherever you find this your
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favorite podcast. I'm Brooks Bratton alongside my
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friends Max, Hers and Cara Hammer and Kara, as I said to
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you, leaving the game on Monday night as we record on Tuesday,
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February 3rd. Gosh, I wish we only had
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something to talk about today. My goodness, do we ever.
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A four goal comeback for the National Predators over the
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Saint Louis Blues. That's followed by a comeback
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win over the New York Islanders. The Olympic break basically upon
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us. But the big story, General
0:45
manager Barry Trotz announcing retirement plans.
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Before we get into all of this, Max Kara, Monday to me felt like
0:54
96 hours long. What did it feel like for you?
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I appreciated Nick Barnonski, our our our head of PR, who said
1:02
thank you for spending your entire day with us as he said
1:05
goodbye to all the media members after Bruno's press conference.
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It was kind of weird because you woke up Monday morning and I
1:13
opened my social media to see a tweet from Elliot Friedman that
1:16
said Barry Trotz will announce his retirement later today.
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And you kind of are feeling a little bit of shock of what it's
1:24
February, what what's happening? And then you go and we listen to
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his press conference. We're going to play a little bit
1:30
of that, but kind of just started as an emotional day
1:33
because you think of Barry Trotz and to me he is the Nashville
1:36
Predators and Max, I mean, we've all had a chance to to watch him
1:41
as a coach now step in as AGM and you kind of start to wonder
1:45
why. Why?
1:47
Yeah, and Barry made it clear it's a family decision.
1:50
He immediately dispelled the rumors that are natural when big
1:54
things happen in the sports world.
1:57
It's not due to health issues. He doesn't want to become a
2:00
coach again, which It still seems like many NHL teams want
2:04
him to be their coach, which I think that phenomenon will never
2:07
end because he was such a great coach in three different places
2:10
in the league. But yeah, it was it was really
2:13
personal for Barry Trotz to hear him talk about his family and
2:17
that it was time and he wanted to initially finish out his
2:20
contract, which would be one more full season after this
2:23
year. But he and Pred's owner Bill
2:25
Haslam spoke and decided that you know what, let's start
2:29
looking now. And the timeline is fluid on
2:32
when the next GM will be hired and announced.
2:34
Barry Trotz will continue to be the Preds GM until that happens.
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Haslam made it pretty clear that Plan A is for the Preds to have
2:42
a new GM by the draft this coming offseason.
2:45
But the timeline is fluid and I think that gives the Preds some
2:48
freedom. So I I think this is what was
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good for everybody, to be honest with you.
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That was my big take away from yesterday.
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Barry Trotz gets what's good for him.
2:56
He gets it on his own terms, of course, which when the
2:59
announcement comes out, it's like, Oh, my God, like, who's
3:01
whose decision was this is Barry Trotz, OK?
3:04
And it was 100% on everybody's own terms on all sides.
3:09
And the Preds get to go hunting for the third GM in franchise
3:12
history, Broxie. Absolutely.
3:14
Well said, Max. So, yeah, those are some of the
3:16
facts as you laid out there. So again, to clarify, Barry
3:20
Trotz, he is still the general manager of this hockey team.
3:22
That was another point of emphasis that Bill Haslam made
3:25
on Monday, that yes, the plan is to eventually retire and step
3:30
aside. But for now, especially with the
3:32
trade deadline, we've talked about it in our previous episode
3:35
as well, coming up just over a month away now on March 6th,
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Barry Trotz is running that and he will be the acting general
3:42
manager until a successor is found.
3:44
So that timeline, Max, as you said, is fluid, but the search
3:47
is already underway. So the Predators have engaged
3:50
Creative Artists Agency, CAA, which you may have heard of
3:54
before, to lead the search for a new head of hockey operations.
3:57
And, and I love the analogy that was used.
4:00
And we'll hear Bill has him talk about it a little bit more
4:02
later. But putting the fishing pole in
4:04
the water, right, we know that this is going to be a very
4:08
attractive position. The Predators have a ton of time
4:11
now to engage in this search, make sure they find the right
4:16
person. And I love the folks that are
4:18
going to be involved here. So Predators chairman Bill
4:20
Haslam, of course, Barry Trotz will be involved, Fred, CEO Sean
4:24
Henry, president and CEO Michelle Kennedy.
4:27
And then I think the best Part 2 of the minority owners.
4:29
So Chris Siguran, whose family has been involved in the
4:32
ownership since 2007 when Predators Holdings came online.
4:37
And then Nick Saban, who Bill Haslam says knows a thing or two
4:40
about producing a winning culture.
4:42
He will also be involved in the search committee.
4:45
You know, a sentence that we never thought we'd be saying.
4:49
Nick Saban is going to help find the next Predators general
4:51
manager. But here we are.
4:53
Wild times we're living in in 2026.
4:56
But Max, you mentioned it, right?
4:57
It's a, it's a family decision. Barry Trotz is healthy.
5:00
We we kind of laughed when we got off in the scrum after the
5:04
formal press conference. And Barry said, believe it or
5:06
not, I am healthy. No matter what you think or
5:09
however you perceive health to be.
5:11
He said I am healthy, I'm feeling good.
5:13
But he wants to spend more time with his family.
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Let's hear Barry Trotz on that reasoning.
5:18
And again, the main reason why he is making this decision for
5:22
me. The number, the number one thing
5:25
is I think you get to a point in life and a life decision that
5:29
you owe time. The one, the great thing about
5:35
this game, it is that you're all in.
5:38
You're all in and you have to be if you're going to be
5:40
successful. And it takes a.
5:43
Lot of time and it takes a lot of energy and it also takes away
5:46
a lot of things from your personal life, your, your
5:49
family, your, your wife, your. Children.
5:53
Grandkids, you name it. And for me it was it.
5:57
It came really clear that they deserve my time.
6:05
So there you here at Barry Trotz getting a little bit emotional.
6:08
We saw him get emotional a couple of times on Monday during
6:11
this press conference. And how can you blame the man?
6:14
I I think that I imagine that most fans realize how taxing it
6:20
is, how time consuming it is to be a general manager in the
6:24
National Hockey League. But you're never off, right?
6:27
Like, even if you're on vacation, your phone is there,
6:30
your laptop is there. If you've got to sign a guy,
6:33
trade a guy, Max, this is a position that demands the best
6:37
of you. And as you heard Barry Trott
6:38
say, a great thing about this game is you're All in all the
6:43
time. But at some point, you might
6:45
want to say, hey, it'd be nice to be there for a family
6:47
member's birthday here and there.
6:49
Yeah, I think the real authentic emotion is what hammers home the
6:53
impact of the day and the reasoning for the decision.
6:56
And Barry Trotz has been a head coach and now AGM in the NHL for
7:00
so long. That's every moment.
7:03
So it never ends. And now all of a sudden it does
7:07
end. And Kara, I think we really got
7:10
the sense that Barry Trotz is so at peace with this ending and
7:14
this decision. Yeah, I think it was it was at
7:17
the end when he said, I I love this game and I love my family.
7:21
And you can hear the emotion from him when he said that.
7:25
But let's go back to Brooks. What you talked a little bit
7:27
about the search committee. We know one thing is Nick Saban
7:30
is not going to step in as the GM of this hockey team.
7:34
I know that may sound a little humorous, but I started to see
7:37
some things on social media and hearing it around the radio,
7:40
people just assume that because he understands sports and in the
7:44
franchise, he's not going to step in.
7:46
But there will be some familiar names interviewing for the role.
7:50
We know that Brian Boyle, David Boyle's son, will have the
7:53
opportunity to interview. We also know Scott Nickel, Jeff
7:57
Kelty names in the organization will have a chance.
8:00
Other than that, we've had no other names come about.
8:02
I know what we'll probably start to see some flutter around of,
8:06
of who could fill these shoes. But Brooks, do you and I mean,
8:10
we can all just speculate here. Do you see them staying in house
8:14
or going maybe venturing out? And now that we have so many
8:18
people involved, you know, a huge search committee, where,
8:21
where do you see it going? Yeah.
8:23
I, I mean, I, I think again, like Barry Trotz mentioned that
8:27
yesterday, we've heard reporters and, and, and folks around the
8:31
industry, I'll mention it as well.
8:33
This is going to be an incredibly coveted job.
8:37
There are a lot of people who are going to want to be
8:40
involved. I would even venture a guess
8:42
again, as we record this just over 24 hours after all of this
8:45
came down. I would imagine there's a lot of
8:48
folks who are, if they're not already getting their resumes
8:51
and their materials ready to go. Perhaps there's a lot that's
8:54
already been sent in. And I imagine that there are
8:56
folks all across the hockey world, perhaps elsewhere.
8:59
I mean, that was something that was mentioned as well.
9:02
Is it somebody who's not even in hockey?
9:04
We've we've seen that crossover a little bit in other sports and
9:07
I'm not saying that that's going to happen.
9:09
I do think it is great to have a hockey person in a role like
9:13
this, obviously. But you know, even somebody like
9:16
an agent, we've seen player agents crossover into the
9:20
general manager role. We've seen broadcasters or
9:23
coaches, you know, it doesn't have to be people like Max even.
9:27
It doesn't have to be somebody who is necessarily already a
9:31
general manager or already an assistant general manager.
9:34
I think one point to make at least from a organizational
9:39
perspective, because I love that Sean Henry said yesterday, the
9:43
next time we talk about this meet him meaning as an
9:46
organization wise, he's like the next time we talk about this is
9:50
when we have the new person here and we're celebrating that
9:52
hiring. We're not going to be out there
9:53
announcing this person flew in, this person scheduled this day.
9:58
You know, I think at least organizationally, they're going
10:01
to want to keep that a little bit tight, but we know how
10:03
information spreads in this day and age.
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There are going to be rumors. They're going to be names that
10:07
come out. I will be fascinated to see who
10:11
it eventually ends up being because again, I think there are
10:14
so many, not only candidates in general, but so many qualified
10:18
candidates. And you know, we know as well as
10:21
anybody else working and living in Nashville, that's not a bad
10:25
thing to do either. It's going to be a lot of
10:27
people, Max, that want this job. Look Brooks, if you think I'm a
10:30
candidate, I am painfully under qualified.
10:33
But you know what? I'm interested.
10:35
Thanks for asking. Throw your hat in the ring.
10:38
So I, I want to mention this too.
10:39
And and we touched on it just a moment ago, the timing of this
10:43
right, guys? I think that was probably the
10:45
biggest question. And, and you, you mentioned the
10:47
rumors, Max, that started flying on Monday morning when this came
10:51
out. Why now?
10:52
Why is the timing right now? And, and that was one of the
10:55
things that Bill Haslam, Predators Chairman, touched on
10:58
very early on in the press conference.
11:00
Here's what he had to say. His three reasons on why the
11:03
timing is now. So when you think about the
11:07
great Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz's name has to be near the
11:12
top of the list. OK, He's that.
11:14
He's made that kind of contribution.
11:16
I also want to say this, I've been in business, I've been in
11:19
politics, been in sports now for two or three years.
11:22
I don't know many better human beings than Barry Trotz.
11:25
I really don't. He's just that guy, and he has
11:29
that kind of heart for everybody around him.
11:30
So I want to start there. His incredible contribution in
11:33
this, a logical question is like, well, this is sort of an
11:38
unusual way to do this. You're announcing asserts that
11:42
Barry's, you know, going to be the general manager.
11:44
And by the way, I want to make that point really clear.
11:46
Barry is our general manager. He is going to be the general
11:49
man. He's in charge of the trade
11:51
deadline. He is our general manager.
11:53
I've been a mayor and a governor where you're everybody calls you
11:56
a lame duck. I don't believe in that.
11:58
Barry is our general manager, but she might say, So what?
12:02
Why are you doing this now? Well, two or three reasons.
12:05
One, I just kind of want whenever you can, you want to be
12:07
as transparent as you can and once you've made a decision, you
12:11
need to go ahead and say that. The second thing is this.
12:14
Barry's the unique kind of individual you can do this with.
12:17
I have 0 doubts. I, I want to emphasize that,
12:20
that he won't always do the right thing for the predator.
12:23
And anybody that knows Barry and wonders if he'll think, oh, I'm
12:26
on the way out. I want to make it look good.
12:28
I'll, I'll treat the trade deadline this way that won't.
12:31
Barry will always do what's right.
12:32
I have 100% confident that. And I also think this he's a
12:36
person that doesn't have the kind of ego that's going to
12:39
affect doing things right, always make do the right thing.
12:42
And Barry will do that. So because Barry is that kind of
12:45
person, because we want to be transparent.
12:47
And then the third thing is, as you know that this is a process,
12:50
we're going to be talking and looking, we're going to start a
12:52
search. We're going to be looking at a
12:55
lot of different people say, well, you can look at only
12:57
existing general manager, assisting assistant.
12:59
We're going to look at a lot of different people.
13:02
But as you know, the way it works in hockey, once the season
13:04
ends, a lot of people go down to the fishing hole as they say,
13:07
I'd just assume be be the guy with his line in the water 1st.
13:11
And having Barry gives us the capacity to do that.
13:15
So we are going to start a search.
13:19
We've hired CAA to coordinate the search for us.
13:22
We have a search committee that is going that I will lead.
13:25
But Barry and Sean and Michelle Kennedy, our president will be
13:29
on. We also will have a couple of
13:31
our other shareholders, Chris Sigurand, Chris's family's been
13:35
involved with the Preds for a while.
13:37
And then Nick Saban, our newest owner, who has a little
13:40
familiarity with helping on winning organizations has agreed
13:43
to be on the search committee as well.
13:45
But we are going to, we'll start that search.
13:49
Like I said, Barry is our general manager.
13:51
We can do this because of the kind of person he is.
13:54
And we look forward to continuing to build on Preds
13:57
Hockey. So there you have that.
13:58
And we mentioned the fishing pole analogy just a moment ago.
14:02
Getting it in the water, right? There going to be so many people
14:05
who want this job. And if you wait until March or
14:10
February or, excuse me, March or April or May, you know, people
14:14
start going off the board, People start going away for the
14:17
summer, people start looking elsewhere.
14:19
I like what Bill Haslam said, that once you make a decision,
14:23
let's be transparent in it and start to move things forward.
14:26
Let's not wait. And that's exactly what the
14:29
predators are doing here. Kara is getting the search
14:32
started now because they know this is not going to be an
14:35
overnight process. No.
14:38
And I think also, too, Brooks, we have to talk about how big
14:41
things are happening, how how big this trade deadline is for
14:46
the team. As I stumble over my words
14:48
trying to get out because I'm still reeling off of the
14:51
Predators comeback win last night, I'm feeling a little
14:53
tired after watching them come back from four goals down.
14:57
I mean, the energy, the excitement was there.
15:01
But Brooks, you look at where the team is, they're they're
15:04
sitting on the bubble right now. Are they going to be in the
15:05
playoffs? Are they not going to be in the
15:07
playoffs? How big are these next few games
15:09
before they hit the Olympic break?
15:11
What's happening with the the pieces that they have and what's
15:15
going to happen as the team moves forward?
15:17
Are they in? Are they out?
15:19
There's just so many unknowns as we record here on Tuesday
15:23
because we're still trying to wait and see.
15:25
Are they going to be in the playoffs?
15:27
Yeah. And well, and that's a great
15:28
point, too. And Barry Trout was asked about
15:30
that during the press conference, and he said that as
15:32
much, right? He's like, we are not in the
15:34
playoffs right now. As of today.
15:36
Even though the Predators won on Monday night, there's still a
15:39
few points out of that wild card spot very much in the hunt.
15:42
But Barry Trott says I owe it to these gentlemen, meaning Bill
15:45
Haslam and Sean Henry sitting beside me.
15:48
I owe it to Predators fans to look at the present, to look at
15:51
the future and say what is best for this team.
15:53
And he's he's said it before and he reiterated it again on
15:56
Monday, that everything is on the table.
15:59
And, you know, we've touched on it on this show and there's lots
16:03
of people talking about it at this time of year.
16:04
It's, again, it's kind of a weird little nuance with the
16:07
Olympic break. You think we've got a month
16:09
until the trade deadline, but you've actually only got a
16:12
handful of games to make that decision, Max, and say, are we
16:17
buying, Are we selling? Are we standing pat?
16:19
Are we trying to give it a go with this group again?
16:22
I, I, you know, This is why it's great that Barry Trotz is still
16:26
in the position he's in. He's not going anywhere for the
16:28
time being because somebody's got to make these decisions.
16:31
And arguably, these decisions have never been bigger, at least
16:34
in the last few years. The last time that the Preds had
16:38
an outgoing GM, Tom Fitzgerald made a trade with David Poyle
16:42
and said, yeah, you can have our seventh round pick.
16:44
We want you to make one final selection.
16:46
And he ended up giving the Preds a chance to select a guy who has
16:49
become a potential real goal scoring prospect.
16:52
And Aidan Fink, who just scored an awesome goal in front of
16:55
60,000 people outdoors at Penn State this past weekend.
16:59
So maybe this is a negotiating tactic for Trotzy.
17:02
Hey, it's my last deadline. Can you throw in an extra first
17:06
in there? I'm never going to get a chance
17:07
to do this again. So no.
17:10
But in all seriousness, it's it's still Trotz's deadline to
17:14
run. And I I think he's going to be
17:17
responsible with it. And this was something that Bill
17:19
Haslam and Sean Henry sitting on either side of Trots emphasized
17:23
in that press conference. Like we just because Barry Trotz
17:27
is retiring doesn't mean he's not the GM starting today.
17:30
And we know because of who he is and what Smashville means to him
17:35
that Trots will run the deadline and however much else he runs
17:38
until the Preds do hire a new GM the way that he should and leave
17:42
everything in good hands. And look, it's it's the same way
17:45
that David Boyle and Barry Trots work together at the trade
17:48
deadline three years ago. And that was a a pretty
17:51
successful deadline for the Preds even as Sellers.
17:53
So I I think we should expect similar results and process
17:58
here. 100% I, I wonder for the both of you and Max, I know you
18:01
mentioned it a little bit, but now that we've had about 24
18:04
hours, Carol, I'll start with you.
18:07
What are your takeaways from this?
18:08
What do you think of all this? Has it settled in yet that this
18:11
is actually the way things are going?
18:13
What do you make of Barry Trott's situation and the way
18:16
that things will head moving forward?
18:18
Oh, that, that's a great question, Brooks.
18:20
I don't know, I think it's still, I think we're still
18:24
trying to process it. You know, I have to mention I'm,
18:26
I'm here in Milwaukee. I'm I'm going to the Admirals
18:29
game tonight and an Admiral staff member picked me up and
18:32
she said what's happening down in Nashville?
18:35
Because we were watching Barry Trotz's press conference.
18:38
So I think everybody's just already feeling a little bit
18:41
stunned. I think we're all, I think
18:43
personally, I'm, I'm happy for Barry that he's made this
18:45
decision and chosen to go spend time with his family.
18:48
But I think the biggest thing for me, Brooks, is how I'm
18:50
feeling is I would like to know who's going to be the decision
18:53
maker. So I think until we know who the
18:55
decision maker is, I think there's it's a little feeling of
18:59
of unknown. As I said at the beginning of
19:03
the podcast, I think this is good for everybody.
19:05
I think it's Barry Trotz going out on his own terms as a legend
19:10
here and someone who is so beloved around the hockey world.
19:15
And what what I think about sitting in that press conference
19:18
on Monday is just all the games that I watched Barry Trotz
19:23
coach, whether it was in person here in Nashville with the other
19:26
two teams that he was with. Like just the sheer amount of
19:30
games and years and impact on the NHL that he could put those
19:36
final few years into his hockey legacy as AGM and be able to
19:40
say, you know what, I've done enough.
19:43
It's my time, time for a hand off and I think he's served the
19:47
organization well in that decision too.
19:49
So I think it underscores everything that Barry Trotz made
19:54
inherent to Smashville, which is loyalty, respect and patience.
19:58
And that is to find the Predators decision making when
20:01
it comes to GM's, coaches and the Times players as well for 27
20:05
seasons. So I think that is what stands
20:09
out to me the most, and that's why all of this makes sense in
20:12
my head. Can I add one thing on this is
20:15
last night at the game when when the press were having their
20:18
comeback win, which we'll get to that.
20:19
But when they shot to Barry Trotz, the fans stood up and
20:22
they cheered him and he threw up the heart sign and the fans were
20:26
going crazy. We love Barry Trotz and I think
20:30
that just speaks volumes to to who he is.
20:33
So Brooks, I'll I'll let you take over from here.
20:35
But I think just that moment, he wasn't booed, people were happy,
20:40
people were excited, people love Barry and I think it's just he
20:43
he gets to go out on a high note.
20:45
Yeah, I love that you said that. I was going to mention that if
20:48
you didn't. And that was such a highlight
20:50
last night to, you know, and and props to our video department
20:53
who threw together a tribute video very quickly with a lot
20:56
going on on Monday to get that out and and to let Barry have
21:00
his moment. And he will have a moment again,
21:03
I think at some point when this all really does come to
21:05
fruition. But to give him that moment in
21:08
the game last night and and to get a standing ovation, I
21:11
thought was wonderful. And, you know, I I think for
21:14
Barry Trout as well, like, you know, this day was going to come
21:19
when he took over for David Poil in in 2023.
21:22
I don't think the intention was to ever do this for 10 years.
21:26
I think it was someone like Barry Trotz who was a perfect
21:30
person to take over for somebody like David Poil, the way that
21:33
the organization is gone and kind of a full circle moment for
21:36
him as the first head coach, obviously, and coming in to take
21:39
over from the first general manager, a mentor in a lot of
21:42
ways, David Poil to Barry Trotz. And, you know, it's just been
21:47
it's been a pleasure to be around him for these couple of
21:49
years and see how he operates as AGM and, and really get to know
21:53
him as a person. And I know that, you know, there
21:55
will be people that say, oh, he's a great person, great.
21:58
You know, it only matters what he does as AGM.
22:00
Well, sure, that's that's true to a point.
22:02
But as a person, I think one of the things that Bill Haslam said
22:07
yesterday was, and Bill Haslam again, he has done it all.
22:11
He said I've been a businessman, I've been in politics, I've been
22:14
in sports. He said I don't know many better
22:16
humans than Barry Trotz. And that's the truth.
22:19
And when you're a good person, you're better at what you do
22:23
everywhere else because of that. And so I think Barry Trotz, you
22:27
know, agree with the decisions he's made or not, he is a
22:32
wonderful human. And because of that, I think
22:35
he's got a lot more respect than maybe some other folks in in a
22:38
position like that would. So shout out to Barry Trotz, who
22:43
has done a masterful job in his hockey career spanning 40 years.
22:47
We're going to miss him, but we're not saying goodbye quite
22:49
yet. He's still got some decisions to
22:51
make. We're excited to see where that
22:53
goes. And then, oh, by the way, yeah,
22:56
the Monday that started out quite normally and got turned
22:59
upside down, The game was a bit of a slobberknocker too.
23:02
And we're going to touch more on that as we come back on the
23:05
Preds official podcast. It was fitting, as Andrew
23:08
Burnett said, more on Monday night's game, a four goal
23:11
comeback. You're listening to The POP on
23:13
ESPN1O25 The game. Welcome back into the Predators
23:24
Official Podcast, Carrie Hammer along with Max hers and Brooks
23:27
Bratton. And guys, I mentioned it in the
23:29
first segment. I'm a little tired.
23:31
I think it was 12/30 at last night when my nerves had finally
23:35
settled down after that comeback win against the Saint Louis
23:40
Blues. It was the 4th and final meeting
23:43
between the two teams. And I think Brooks, we can agree
23:47
that the first period was not great. 10 minutes into the
23:51
second period, we felt like this is really not great.
23:57
The next thing you know, Bruno's talking to the guys on the bench
23:59
and everything in the game seemed to change.
24:02
I don't know about the two of you.
24:03
I won't lie. When the Predator scored goal
24:06
number three, I thought to myself, and I said to others
24:10
around me, they're going to win this game.
24:12
You could just feel it turning right.
24:14
They go down 5 to 1. UC Soros gets pulled Eustis on
24:18
and then goes in which an unsung hero last night was #29 and pads
24:22
for the pads, you know, made some huge saves as soon as you
24:26
got into the game. It could have easily been seven
24:29
or eight one at that point. He kept them in at the Preds,
24:33
got a couple of goals, and then Ryan O'Reilly got another in the
24:36
third period. And then Steven Stamkos took it
24:38
from there. And we talked about how we were
24:41
feeling. The guys talked about it as
24:42
well. On Monday morning.
24:44
You're waking up thinking it's a normal day.
24:45
Steven Stamkos is like, yeah, I got a couple texts and was like,
24:48
oh, this is a thing that's happening.
24:51
So, you know, the the morning got a little bit turned upside
24:53
down, but that was the question, right?
24:55
Yesterday was, OK, great. This is all happening in the
24:59
front office. How is the team going to handle
25:01
it? Are they going to be affected by
25:02
this? Lots of folks were saying we
25:05
believe in Bruno and the guys on the ice that they're not going
25:07
to let this affect them. And I, and I don't know that it
25:10
did necessarily. I think unfortunately, and Barry
25:14
Trotz kind of joked about this during his pressure.
25:16
He's like, I don't like our first periods.
25:18
You know, that we we have seen the Predators do this before.
25:21
That was the 17th time this season that they have come back
25:25
to win a game, which is an absurd number to begin with.
25:28
But to do it down 51 Max, I mean, I don't know.
25:32
On one hand it's like, how is that possible?
25:34
And on the other hand, it's like, well, of course it's
25:35
possible. This is what the 2526 Preds do.
25:38
Tying the largest comeback in franchise history.
25:41
Just the second time the Preds have won a game ever that they
25:44
trailed by four goals. And look, the numbers from this
25:46
game are crazy. Roman Yossi 4 assists.
25:49
Luke Evangelista assisted on all three of the pretzels in the
25:53
third period. Steven Stamkos tied the game and
25:57
won the game with his second goal of the night and his 609th
26:01
career goal, passing Dino Ciccarelli and becoming the 20th
26:05
leading goal scorer in NHL history.
26:07
Ryan O'Reilly had two goals, including possibly one of my
26:10
favorite goals of the entire season, where him and Philip
26:13
Forsberg miscommunicated on a power play pass and O'Reilly
26:16
just reached out, poked it with one hand and perfectly knocked
26:20
it in five hole. Everything started going the
26:23
Preds way. It was crazy, and they flipped
26:26
that game on its head. It is so much fun beating the
26:29
Blues. I love watching the Blues look
26:31
as bad as they have in most of the games against the Preds this
26:34
year. So let's keep those guys in
26:36
Saint Louis down. We'll see him again next year.
26:38
And what a fun, fun win with a Smashville standing out a boot.
26:42
The Smashville standing O and and we'd be remiss if we didn't
26:45
mention the crowd and, and guys were talking about it unprompted
26:48
all night long. And Kara, you talked to Steven
26:50
Stamkos after the game, did you not?
26:52
Yeah, Stammer was so into the crowd.
26:55
He talked about he talked about the comeback.
26:57
When I I asked him, I said, hey, you know, you talked about
27:00
scoring meaningful goals. I was number six O 8 and six O
27:04
9. And he wavered away from from
27:06
the goals and went straight to the crowd here in Smashville.
27:09
Big juice came in, you made some unbelievable saves and you know,
27:12
you get 1 and you get another one quick and then there's some
27:15
life and the crowd gets into it. I think that was one of, if not
27:18
the best crowds I've I've seen since I've been here and it was
27:21
electric out there. We fed off it and then you can
27:24
see the snowball keeps rolling in your direction.
27:26
And give our guys credit, we never quit.
27:29
But crazy game. So one of the things that Sam
27:31
Coast also said in our postgame interview was how much he's
27:34
enjoying watching Roman Yosini play hockey right now.
27:37
And guys, you, you just mentioned it for assists last
27:39
night. The captain, he he just seems to
27:42
be on fire. He's playing so well.
27:45
And that was something that Stamkos has said previously,
27:47
too. He's like, you know, when did
27:49
this thing start to turn around? It was when Romanosti came back
27:52
from his injury earlier this season.
27:55
And and, you know, almost kind of very quietly had four assists
27:59
last night that, you know, you're you're noticing it as
28:01
it's happening. But it took me a moment as I was
28:03
writing the recap after the game, I was like, oh, yeah, I
28:06
should probably mention that that's that's kind of a good
28:09
number. But yeah, Max Roman has just,
28:11
and we've seen it happen before, that it's not necessarily
28:13
surprising, but a player of his caliber, the leader of this
28:17
hockey team, the ability he has to just drag this group into the
28:22
fight and they are really feeding off of him right now.
28:25
He's just logging the puck. The puck has been on his sticks
28:28
so much recently and he's got all the moves going.
28:31
He's got the dipsy doodles, he's got the cutbacks, he's got the
28:34
spins, he's got the big circles. He's just got it all going.
28:38
And the game-winning goal he scored against the Islanders on
28:40
the road last weekend, it was four on four.
28:43
And Philip Forsberg was like, yeah, the end the puck for 35
28:46
seconds, you knew something was going to happen.
28:48
And Steven Samko set up the screen for him and he ripped it.
28:51
And the Preds won a game after they've been shooting on a
28:54
goalie all night. And Elias Sorokin, who was
28:55
making save after save after save.
28:58
So Roman Yossi has been involved in so many big plays recently.
29:02
I was really hoping you would get a fifth assist either on the
29:05
Steven Stamkos game-winning goal or an empty netter, which sadly
29:09
Pres never got an empty netter, but that would have tied the
29:12
highest point total in franchise history if he did so.
29:15
An exceptional game for Yosi in a sequence of many as he pushes
29:20
1000, pushes past 1000. You guys will get a kick out of
29:23
this. When Romy and I were watching
29:25
the Islanders game, you know, she's only three years old.
29:27
And I said, oh, it's Roman, it's the captain.
29:29
And she said, oh, so he's the quarterback.
29:32
And but I'm like, actually Romy, he kind of is, he's
29:37
quarterbacking the team right now.
29:38
That's exactly. We can say that he's the
29:40
quarterback because right now Roman is the is driving the
29:44
train. Yes, Romy.
29:46
Well, that. That's great.
29:48
Well, there was there was including that there was a lot
29:51
of great audio from last night as well.
29:53
But I did want to play this from Andrew Burnett in the post game.
29:56
I mean, again, what a wild day it was.
29:59
And the bench boss said perhaps it was fitting that the game
30:02
went like this after what happened in the morning.
30:04
It just didn't seem like an uneventful 2.
30:06
One game was part of the script. Yeah, I mean, I think there's
30:11
probably a roller coaster day for for a lot of us from right
30:15
away in the morning to, you know, talking with Barry and
30:19
Bill and John and then with the team.
30:22
And then the way the game went was kind of an exhausting day,
30:26
but probably fitting the same time.
30:29
I don't know. There's been other times here
30:32
that the building, the roof was blowing off, but that was
30:35
probably as good as I've seen it in recent memory.
30:39
And, you know, kudos for them for hanging in.
30:41
I'm glad we gave him something to cheer about as the game went
30:44
on. So it was a fun, I guess the end
30:46
of the day. There's lots up and downs and
30:49
lots in betweens and you leave on a on a good note.
30:53
And you know, I think of of Barry, you know, I'm sure for
30:57
him for us to probably he's seen so many different things and
31:02
he's been probably a roller coaster ride through the the
31:04
predator, his time. Maybe it's a little bit fitting.
31:09
That's kind of the way the day ended for him and I'm happy that
31:12
for him we we got that one. I didn't know I was feeling sick
31:15
on the bench. If we would, you know, big juice
31:19
made some big saves. It could have been 71 there and
31:23
I was feeling really sick about that.
31:24
So I'm glad we we dug in and found a way to to make make Papa
31:31
Barry proud. So there you hear Bruno
31:33
postgame. We dug in and we found a way to
31:36
win it for Papa Barry. Didn't see that one coming, but
31:40
Roman's the quarterback and we've got Papa Berry.
31:44
Papa Berry? Like Papa Bear?
31:47
That's going to have to pick whether the remainder of Barry
31:49
Trotz's general managing tenure after he announced his
31:52
retirement plans yesterday. I think it's perfect.
31:55
No, I love it. Yeah, it was well said by Bruno
31:57
and and, you know, just a note as well that he mentioned that
32:01
he likes where this team is heading into the Olympic break.
32:04
Of course, as we record this, only two games to go before that
32:07
hiatus, but the Preds talk about winning the week and your
32:10
probably sick of hearing us talk about it, but the guys talk
32:13
about it too, right? It is top of mind.
32:15
Steven Stamkos mentioned it again on Monday night that that
32:18
was something that came from Barry Trotz.
32:20
And more often than not over the past couple of months, the
32:23
Predators have won the week. They're trying to do so again
32:26
heading into this Olympic break. And if they are able to do so,
32:29
Andrew Burnett says. We've been through a lot of hard
32:31
things, but we're finding ways to persevere.
32:33
And if we can get through this one more week, get a little bit
32:36
of a break, and then come back for what's going to be a crazy
32:39
end of February to March, who knows what could happen.
32:43
Yeah, the belief, the belief is contagious, I think Stamko said.
32:47
That to me goes when you see guys all fighting on the same
32:50
page because the belief in in Bruno even mentioned it, Brooks,
32:53
we heard it postgame, he said. They, they believe in each
32:56
other, they believe in themselves.
32:58
And that's exactly what they need right now going into the
33:00
break. It's there.
33:01
So two games to go before the break.
33:02
Wednesday night, the Preds host Minnesota.
33:04
Thursday, they had to Washington to face Alex Ovechkin in the
33:07
Caps, and then four guys will head over to Milan.
33:09
The rest get a well deserved vacation and we will touch on
33:13
Milan in just a moment as we continue on here on the Preds
33:15
Official Podcast on ESPN1O25 The Game.
33:25
Welcome back to the Predators official Podcast here on
33:28
ESPN1O25 The Game. You can watch us on the
33:32
Nashville Predators YouTube page and listen on your preferred
33:35
podcast platforms. My name is Max Hers from Fred's
33:38
radio, along with my two best friends in the universe, Kara
33:41
Hammer from Fred's TV. Actually, I lied.
33:44
My best friend in the universe is her daughter Remy.
33:47
Hi, Remy. And Brooks Braden is not one of
33:50
my best friends. Sorry, Brooks, you're just not
33:52
enough of a Hammer. But he's still on the podcast.
33:55
We like him enough to keep him around.
33:57
It is almost time for the Olympics two games as we record
34:00
now on this Tuesday. By the time you hear us, it may
34:02
already be Olympic break time and the Olympics may already
34:06
have started. They begin on Thursday, February
34:08
5th. That is when the women's hockey
34:10
tournament begins, one of the 1st events in Milan, Italy.
34:14
Not Mylan, Tennessee. A lot of confusion about that.
34:19
The Olympics are not in West Tennessee this year, sad to say.
34:23
Maybe next time. Never seen that.
34:25
Yeah. It would be great, but on
34:27
Thursday, February 5th, the USA women play their first game of
34:30
the Olympics at 9:30 AM Nashville time against Checkia.
34:35
Then the men's tournament begins next Wednesday.
34:38
We got a lot of hockey coming our way, Brooks.
34:40
We want to make sure our fans know when to watch it, how to
34:43
watch it every single USA game. The men's and the women's will
34:48
air on the USA Network and also on the Peacock subscription
34:52
service as part of NBC. The elimination games and Metal
34:57
Games for hockey will be on NBC, but the majority of the USA
35:00
Games and some of the other games involving Preds players
35:03
will be on the USA Network. So I'm going to turn it over for
35:06
Brooks to let you know when the four Olympic Preds will be
35:10
playing for their nations and when and how you can watch.
35:14
Yeah, exactly. And and, you know, our fans know
35:16
that if you've seen the Olympics before on the NBC family of
35:18
networks on Peacock, you can find ways to watch there.
35:21
But February 11th, the Fins kick things off.
35:25
It's the first game of the men's tournament against Slovakia.
35:27
It's a 9:40 AM central time start again.
35:31
Of course, Italy's a few hours ahead, so there's going to be
35:34
some early games here. Sweden also plays on February
35:37
11th and Switzerland plays on February 12th.
35:40
So that's all the Preds are in the first three games.
35:43
So of course that's Roman Yossi for Switzerland, Philip Forsberg
35:47
for Sweden, and UC Soros and Eric Holla for Finland.
35:50
So you can see all the Preds in action within the first three
35:53
games of the tournament. The big one, Finland versus
35:56
Sweden, February 13th. Wake up five. 10 in the morning?
36:01
Oh no. You.
36:03
Can do it. You can do it.
36:05
What, what a, what a way to start your Friday.
36:08
Finland and Sweden, Forsberg versus Soros and Hala, 5:10 AM
36:13
February 13th. And then Max is going to touch
36:16
on this, but also worth noting, Canada and the United States
36:19
will not play each other in the preliminary round.
36:21
We'll see if we hopefully get a meeting between those two at
36:24
some point. But the quarterfinals begin
36:26
February 18th. The bronze medal game is
36:29
February 21st, and the gold medal game comes Sunday morning,
36:33
February the 22nd on NBC. Those will be live, of course,
36:37
and we will update you in the weeks ahead as we get closer to
36:41
that. But we are all proud Americans
36:43
on this podcast, and we know that many of you listeners are
36:47
as well. And when can you watch Team USA
36:49
in action, Max? USA has honestly like I don't
36:53
want to jinx anything here. This is this might be the
36:55
softest group possible for USA. They're for the men's hockey
36:59
tournament. There are three groups in the
37:01
men's tournament, four teams in each.
37:03
USA is with Germany, Latvia and Denmark.
37:05
And I know you got Leon Dry Sidle in there, but that should
37:08
be a very manageable group for Team USA.
37:11
So the first USA men's game is on Thursday, February 12th
37:15
against Latvia, then Saturday, February 14th against Denmark
37:20
and Sunday, February 15th against Germany.
37:23
The final game of their group Stage 3 games in four days.
37:26
All of those games are at 2:00 in the afternoon.
37:29
Nashville times, so good TV Times.
37:31
They want Americans watching so they get the late slots.
37:34
And they'll all be televised on USA Network and Peacock in the
37:38
United States. So you can watch it both on
37:40
cable and on streaming, depending on your preferred
37:43
option. And before that, the women's
37:45
team will play four games. Thursday, February 5th to open
37:48
the tournament at 9:30 AM Nashville time against Checkia.
37:52
Saturday February 7th against Finland also at 9:30 in the
37:56
morning Nashville time. Monday, February 9th against
37:59
Switzerland at 1:30 PM Nashville time and then the big one in the
38:04
women's prelims. Tuesday, February 10th USA
38:07
versus Canada at 1:00 in the afternoon Central time.
38:10
All of those games will be on USA Network and Peacock and the
38:14
women's tournament ahead of the men's tournament.
38:16
The women's players are already there.
38:17
Team USA is getting their team picture in these couple days and
38:21
they will be playing before the friends are even done playing
38:24
their last game on Thursday. So looking forward to that and
38:27
we'll see Brooks who USA draws. If well everybody makes the
38:32
elimination round, then you can get into the metal round.
38:35
Top teams get a bye into the quarterfinals, then everybody
38:40
else will have single elimination.
38:42
USA is with Germany, Latvia and Denmark and Group C Roman Yossi
38:47
is the best player in Group A with Canada, Switzerland,
38:50
Czechia and France. So Switzerland versus Czechia
38:53
could be the big swing game there if neither is able to beat
38:56
Canada. And then Group B Finland and
38:58
Sweden, which is by far the best game of the men's prelims, as
39:02
you said, Brooks, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, who is solid,
39:07
and Italy who is the host nation.
39:08
So really looking forward to all these games.
39:11
It's going to be a lot of hockey, so I hope everybody's
39:14
ready to watch because I'm excited.
39:16
I'm so fired up, Kara. Like, I've already got my hoodie
39:18
and my hat upstairs. I'm ready to break them out at
39:21
the Preds team store. By the way, they may still have
39:23
some merch if you're interested in picking up some USA Hockey
39:27
swag. They also had some Finland and
39:28
Sweden jerseys, I believe, that I saw.
39:31
But yeah, I'm so fired up. We've talked about it the first
39:33
time in 12 years. NHL players at the Winter
39:36
Olympic Games, Kara I don't know.
39:38
I think basically just leave your television on for the next
39:41
2 1/2 weeks. I think that's all we do during
39:44
the Olympics anyway. I mean, it's just it's 24/7
39:47
Watching the Winter Olympics. We got to give a shout out to
39:49
our girl, Lindsey Vonn, who's still going to be competing in
39:52
the women's downhill with a torn ACL.
39:54
And Max, I heard you say never say never about Mylan Tennessee,
39:58
but let's give a shout out to our neighbors down the street.
40:01
Jonas Park is going to be hosting soccer during the 2028
40:05
Summer Olympics. So if we're not fired up for
40:08
these Winter Olympics guys, get your game on for this summer.
40:11
I have absolutely no understanding of how or why
40:14
Nashville can be part of the Los Angeles Olympics, but I don't
40:18
want anyone to explain it to me. I have no desire to know.
40:21
I'm just happy and I'm going to take it.
40:23
Can we put it out that this is like a Philip Forsberg, George
40:26
Kittle sort of deal happening? I mean, George is out in
40:29
California. Phil has ties to G Otis.
40:33
We'll just, we'll just make some conspiracy theories.
40:35
Conspiracy theories on the podcast. 100% why not?
40:40
Let's do it. Yeah, that'll be fun.
40:42
So much to look forward to. Gosh, sports are the greatest,
40:45
aren't they? Looking forward to the Olympics.
40:48
And of course, we will have more information as we go along over
40:51
the next couple of weeks for. You.
40:52
I have one more thing to say, Brooke.
40:53
Sorry. Yeah, go for it.
40:55
Shout out to the NHL. All of the men's hockey scores,
40:57
game times and live updates are in the NHL app.
41:00
So use the NHL app just like you would to follow the Preds to get
41:03
all the men's Olympic scores. So props to the NHL for getting
41:06
that in there. Couldn't be easier.
41:08
There's no excuse. You've no excuse to not watch
41:10
all of these games. We will certainly be doing so
41:13
even if you have to wake up at 5:00 in the morning.
41:15
It's once every four years you can do it.
41:18
We'll be back in just a moment to wrap things up on this jam
41:20
packed episode of the Preds official podcast here on one O 2
41:24
five the game and streaming on YouTube. 4th and final segment
41:34
of the Predators official podcast for this week, Brooks
41:37
Bratton alongside Max Hers and Kara Hammer here on ESPN1O25,
41:41
The Game and YouTube. Tuesday, February 3rd as we
41:43
record and we're still letting it sink in, but the big news of
41:46
the week. We know that the Big E Awesome
41:48
Person of the Week should go to only one person.
41:51
Our friend Aaron Donig would allow this, but Predators
41:54
General Manager Barry Trotz announcing his plans for
41:57
retirement. He is our Big E Awesome Person
42:00
of the Week. And Brooks, we know Aaron would
42:02
have loved it. And just listening to Willie
42:04
talk about Barry Trotz last night, two people who have
42:06
worked together since day one. And Willie said it, it was Barry
42:10
who made Nashville and it in make it a family.
42:14
This is why we're a family. And it started at the top with
42:18
Barry Trotz. And Willie said something that
42:20
kind of stuck out and he goes, you know, if you love Nashville,
42:22
Nashville will love you back. And even when Trotzy went to
42:25
Washington, he still said Nashville was his home and
42:28
that's why he's back here. So Barry, we love you.
42:32
Congrats on being the Big E Person of the Week.
42:35
And you're still the GM. But we're also going to wish you
42:39
a great retirement when the time comes.
42:41
Yeah. Do we say congratulations now or
42:43
do we wait? What's the protocol here?
42:45
I don't really know how that works.
42:47
Like do you get the congratulations balloon, but
42:49
it's only like halfway inflated. I don't I don't really know how
42:52
that works. You got to have really good
42:54
helium to keep that inflated until the summer.
42:57
Or you get like a congratulations cake, but we got
42:59
to eat half of it first. I don't know.
43:01
We're only we're only one our fishing poles only in so far.
43:05
We're not all the way in yet. But no, that's a really good
43:08
point, Kara. Like, you know, we talked about
43:10
this is just a different organization.
43:12
I, I think, you know, I saw someone which we know that
43:16
social media can be a mess. But I saw a comment on the video
43:20
of Barry Trout receiving the standing ovation that we talked
43:23
about during the game on Monday. And somebody was like, who
43:26
obviously is not from here and doesn't get it, but they were
43:28
like, why would you give him a standing ovation?
43:30
But I think that that speaks to how much people in Nashville do
43:34
love Barry Trout. If you're a true Predators fan,
43:37
you know, forget the the business part of it, the human
43:41
part of it, you can't help but love the man and for what he's
43:45
done for this organization, this franchise, this city.
43:48
Again, if you're a true fan of the Nashville Predators, you
43:51
hold Barry Trotz in a very high regard.
43:52
And Max, we saw that on Monday night.
43:54
Barry Trotz, our Big E, we love you.
43:56
And we'll see you soon At the trade deadline, we'll talk about
43:59
all the happenings and we will keep you posted on all the
44:02
Predators happenings, the Olympic happenings as well.
44:04
Thanks for listening to another edition of the Preds official
44:07
podcast for Cara Hammer and Max hers.
44:10
I am Brooks Brat and we will be back during the Olympic break.
44:13
Enjoy the hockey, talk to you soon.