‘I need more’: Predators GM Trotz pinpoints players, not coach, for struggles

Barry Trotz isn’t hiding his frustration anymore.

The Nashville Predators general manager has had to answer for a second-straight season where his team is sitting near the bottom of the NHL standings, struggling to find its form.

Trotz did not hide his desire for what he needed to see from the team.

“I need (expletive) more from them,” Trotz said, per The Tennessean. “I need more.”

The Predators looked to be trending up when Trotz made big moves in free agency ahead of last season to add key veterans like Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault.

Instead, the Predators sit at the bottom of the standings with a league-worst 49 goals (2.29 per game).

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Considering the talent on the team, Trotz seemed to be perplexed as to the issue with the group.

“The confusing thing, the frustrating thing for everyone, is that we just don’t score,” he told The Tennessean on Nov. 21. “You look at the names on our roster, we should score more. Because we have (Filip) Forsberg, Stamkos, Marchessault, we all think we’re going to score.”

The Predators general manager said he does not believe the coaching staff is an issue with the team — instead, he said players must execute better.

When asked if he would look at making a coaching change in order to spark his team, Trotz said it’s the right approach to getting his team back on track.

“Over the next few weeks, across the league, someone’s getting fired. You’re going to see it, it’s just going to happen,” Trotz said. “And what you’re going to hear out of every (expletive) player is, ‘Oh man, we just underperformed, he was a really good coach, we’ve just got to be better.’ And it takes everybody off the hook. They go, ‘Well, it was him, not us.’”

Trotz also pointed to other ways he motivated the team in the past as coach, like two seasons ago when he cancelled a trip to see the band U2 at The Sphere in Las Vegas which led to the team going on an 18-game point streak and clinching a playoff berth.

The former coach also offered up on-ice suggestions as to how his team can get on track.

“We’ve got to get greasier sometimes,” he said. “We’ve got to get into the interior a little more. As much as we try to reinvent the game, being skillful and off the rush, sometimes you’ve got to get a little greasier. The inside goals still count just as much.”

If his team doesn’t start turning around, Trotz knows that he might have to consider more drastic changes.

“We’ve got some pieces. The roster is not perfect. Some of that is, a little bit, the roster construction,” he said. “I’ll take responsibility. I think the coaches take a little bit, and I think the players do, too. Everything is a partnership.”