Isles' Trotz rips Preds' Laviolette for using top PP unit in blowout win
Barry Trotz has a bone to pick with Peter Laviolette.
The New York Islanders bench boss wasn't happy when the Nashville Predators head coach sent out his top power-play unit late in the third period on Tuesday while winning 8-3.
"I’ll see Peter maybe in the summer and we’ll discuss that a little bit," Trotz told Newsday's Andrew Gross on Thursday. "I wasn’t a big fan of that. It’s 8-3 and you’re putting your guys blasting pucks and you’re putting guys at risk. That’s fine. Everybody has their own way of doing it. I probably wouldn’t have done it that way.
"It tells me a lot about him."
Handed a two-man advantage with less than four minutes left in the game, Laviolette summoned Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, and Matt Duchene - arguably Nashville's top five players. It could've been a time for Laviolette to reward some bottom-six players with rare power-play time, but he opted not to.
The Predators currently rank 26th in the NHL with the man advantage after finishing dead last a year ago, so it's possible Laviolette was trying to build the confidence of his top unit.
Oddly enough, Laviolette replaced Trotz in Nashville in 2014 when the latter was fired after a 16-year run.