Drowning Out the Noise In Nashville
The Nashville Predators are working hard to stay focused on the work and not on the noise.
“Noise is never good.”
A 6-10-4 start to the season has landed the Nashville Predators near the bottom of the league while speculation about what is wrong with this team grows louder with every loss. The players and coaches try hard not to let the outside cacophony infiltrate the locker room, but it isn’t always easy.
“It’s a challenge,” Andrew Brunette said after Wednesday’s practice when asked how the staff and team deal with the outside noise.
“It’s always challenging - the good and the bad. I think there’s always noise circulating and if you let it infiltrate, not too many good things happen,” Bruno said.
There’s plenty that could become a detrimental distraction for the team right now. After losing 4-0 to the Penguins in the second game of the Global Series, many wondered if Brunette would still have his job when the team returned from Sweden. Trade speculation grows as veterans like Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault struggle to succeed in Nashville. The franchise is currently in the quagmire, and there are plenty of questions about how they can realistically turn this around.
Brunette believes the veterans can help the team stay focused.
“It’s something a lot of guys have been through multiple times,” Brunette said. “But noise is never good.”
The biggest lesson from the veterans is to limit exposure.
“Ever since I’ve gotten in the league, I’ve kind of stayed away from all the news,” Brady Skjei shared.
“I stay off of a lot of that - Twitter and all that.”
Just because the players aren’t reading the comments doesn’t mean they are oblivious to what is being said.
“Obviously, I’m sure it’s not all great right now,” Skjei said.
Ryan O’Reilly doesn’t have any social media, but while he doesn’t hear or see the discourse, he still senses it.
“I can feel it,” he said.
“I don’t really know what’s being said, but I know when bad things happen or it’s not fun, there’s obviously a lot of disconnect there. But it is what it is. It’s part of the game. When you don’t win, things don’t go well for anyone,” O’Reilly said.
“You can feel it in the games and the atmosphere at the rink,” Luke Evangelista said.
“I’ve been here when we’re in the playoffs, making playoff pushes, and the arena’s full and you can feel the energy, and everyone’s on their feet. Then here during times where it’s been tough, the rink’s not as full as you’re used to and you can just feel the atmosphere and the groans. So you feel it.”
Coaching questions, trade speculation, and a disappointing record could cause internal problems for a struggling team, but the Predators are intentional about closing ranks in the locker room and working together.
“I just think leaning on each other, just having that belief and that love as a team, that camaraderie,” Evangelista said of how the team stays insulated and focused.
“Everyone’s just battling together. It’s good to have guys you can lean on and everyone’s kind of in the same boat experiencing the same things.”
Battling together means getting back to basics.
“You have to really simplify and have a narrow focus,” O’Reilly said.
“Obviously there’s nothing going well for us. You like to simplify, get back to the absolute basics of it and build it up from there.”
“With all that noise around us and speculation, you really have to find something simple that we can all latch on to and build our game from there.”
Evangelista agrees.
“Coming to the rink and working - that’s all you can do.”