Mid-Season Report: Beneath The Ice

Media sat down with Preds GM at the halfpoint of the season to discuss Nashville’s season thus far. It’s been a very weird, inconsistent roller coaster of a ride with many highs and lows.

The Predators are yet on another losing streak, losing their 4^th game in a row last night to the Vancouver Canucks at home. A trend the team has faced all season.

“It’s been a really weird season. We’ll win 5 games in a row, and then lose 5 in a row. Win 3 in a row, lose 3 in a row. Win 4 in a row, lose 4 in a row. If you look at our schedule, this has been a trend all season. I never know whether we’re trending up or down. You think we are about to break out and compete with the best, just to suddenly stumble and fall down the standings again.”

Wolf continued,

"You're going to have your ups and downs throughout the year,'' Wolf said. "I think our biggest flaw has been that our ups and downs have been a little too high and and little too low. I think we've got to strike a balance and right now we’re struggling to be consistent.'' Wolf said, before addressing the media for further questions.

Media: Special teams are in the bottom five. The Predators are 25^th in PP and 25^th in PK. Do you feel fortunate to be where you are right now, fighting for a playoff spot despite underwhelming special team stats?

“I don’t know if I feel fortunate. I think when you look at it sensibly, at the start of the year, we were firing on a lot of cylinders. Everything seemed to be clicking for us and we got on our high horse and we were fighting for 1^st overall in the league for the first couple of months. Then when December hit, that’s when our wheels began to fall off, and our poor special teams says a lot about our recent plummet down the standings. We’ve struggled on five-on-five, too. We got shut out in back to back games, recently. We’re not where we want to be. The other parts, the PK and PP, they can be fixed and hopefully, they will get better in the second half of the season. But as it stands, everyone on this team needs to step up. Everyone needs to elevate their game if they want to see the post-season at this point.”

Media: Can you be a playoff team?

“I say that we can, but I say that with skepticism. Is it likely without the team playing better? I’d say we’re more likely to be out. We have to get better on special teams, no doubt about it. It’s the one area of the game where you say, to make the playoffs, you want to be in the upper half on both of them. It’s where we’ve been in the past. And also, we have the personnel. If you look at our team, I can confidently say we have a team that should be producing better results. We played like a cup contending team in the first two months of this season, I know we can get back to that level, but it’s going to take a lot of work in the second half.

Media: Will you be searching for outside help through trade to improve this team in hopes to increase your playoff chances?

You have to look at everything. My job is to look at everything that's out there, look at the whole landscape, and to the best of my ability, make our team better. So you can never say never with everything, but we're not going to deal our young players for middle-aged or older players. That's not going to happen. We are a draft and develop team, and I’m confident with the personnel we have, we can be successful with the team we have now. It may not come to fruition this season, but next season we'll have a lot more depth in this organization that I believe can give us better success. This season we are still growing as a team."

Media: You recently dealt Willie Mitchell to the Devils, care to shed some light on that?

“We will miss Mitchell on the backend, but as much as I have a competitive nature, the future of this franchise is just as important to me. Especially with the way the EHE is structured, you have to get the most out of your UFA assets as much as you can. Mitchell was a pending UFA at the end of the season, and we felt we could replace his spot in the line-up internally. So we dealt him for a 4^th round pick which will add another prospect to our franchise in this summers draft. Prospects and RFA’s are so valuable in this league because you get protection on their rights for a lot longer. It’s hard, almost impossible to acquire a player who’s a year or even two years away from unrestricted free agency because you lose that asset automatically. That’s why it’s especially important for us to build young, stay young, and grow the team from the inside. Moving Mitchell for a draft pick keeps his value inside the franchise moving forward.

Media: You were absent from the all-star break, care to elaborate?

“I needed a break just like anybody else. It was a great weekend in Nashville and I’m glad so many people had fun in our facilities. I needed time away from the office and the arena. It’s hard to have fun with all the activities that were going on when you’re currently focusing on your current on-ice struggles with the team.

Media: There were rumours of you partying at the bars?

“First I heard of that, rumours are rumours – people talk. That’s a really strange thing for someone to make up.”

Media: It was from Penguins GM, Mat Fargas, he said you were out getting wasted while the all-star game was going on.

“Fargas is upset because he’s been trying to acquire a specific player from our team and he won’t leave me alone on the matter. I think he spread that rumour because he didn’t get his way. It’s what he does. He pouts and he always phones me with these late night 3 am phone calls, and he’s always talking really fast on the phone, talking about nonsense, and he's always sniffing a lot over the phone – I don’t know what it is he does in his office every night that keeps him up to the wee hours of the morning, but it’s a little concerning. Maybe the league should look into it.”