The Nashville Predators are six games into their season and are right at .500. It’s the same result as the last few years for Head Coach Andrew Brunette.
A new President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Chris MacFarland, has been evaluating the team since joining the franchise in the summer. Now that he’s seeing firsthand what the on-ice product is for Nashville, he could make a coaching change soon.
While it’s not known if MacFarland actively wants to move on from Brunette, back at training camp he emphasized how important the first month of the season would be.
“I think everyone wants to get off to a good start. So do I think that is important for us? Yes. What is a good start? Is it accumulating points? That would be obvious, right? You can play good hockey and not get rewarded,” MacFarland said.
At this point, the Nashville Predators are 2-2-2 and are coming off a 5-2 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights. The road doesn’t get any easier for Andrew Brunette as the San Jose Sharks are in town tonight.
Andrew Brunette was perplexed by his team’s effort on Tuesday against the Golden Knights, and if more bad games stack up, then Chris MacFarland may make a change.
“We throw too many pucks away, careless a little bit in the offensive zone, and it led to some odd-man rushes. For plays that aren’t even high-end plays, we’re just throwing pucks. It’s a little perplexing. It’s something we talk about every day, something we need to be better,” Brunette said Tuesday night.
Fresh start with a new head coach
Nashville has a coach on staff who was most recently with the Chicago Blackhawks as their head coach. Assistant Coach Luke Richcardson was the head coach in Chicago from 2022-25 and could be an interim coach should Nashville fire Brunette.
The Predators have only seen four head coaches in 27 years of play. MacFarland had a strong coach in Jared Bednar during his time in Colorado.
Brunette has proven what he is capable of with Chris MacFarland evaluating him and may not have much longer in Nashville, depending on how this team continues to perform.
Systematically, Nashville has not been playing to their potential so far. Should this veteran-laden roster want to put forth their best effort, then a new coach could spruce up how the Predators attack and defend.
Still time for Brunette to prove why he can stay
It’s still the beginning of the season, and Brunette has also proven before that the Predators can stack together good games. While the 18-game point streak in 2024 is a good microcsm, there haven’t been many stretches like that since.
Coming into tonight’s game against the Sharks, there has yet to be a goal scored by Filip Forsberg as well. That’s not on Brunette at this point; however, if there is stagnant play from Nashville and other veterans, in the games that follow, then Nashville’s coach could run out of runway.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, MacFarland may even be impressed enough to keep Brunette through the season. He’s in the final year of his contract and may just finish it out before the Predators find the right man for the job.
Only time will tell here in Nashville what direction Chris MacFarland wants to take this team.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
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