As one of the teams that made the biggest waves at the NHL's trade deadline, the Nashville Predators worked quickly to get their new additions integrated into a lineup that has been doing very well all season in the ultra-competitive Central Division.
While defenseman Hal Gill came to Nashville 10 days ahead of the Feb. 27 trade deadline, forwards Andrei Kostitsyn and Paul Gaustad were both dealt to the Predators on the league's last day to make deals, giving the team less than 20 games to mesh with their new teammates prior to the start of the playoffs.
Coming in almost two weeks prior to the deadline, Gill had a head start on getting acquainted with his new teammates. In his time as a Predator, he has done exactly what they expected, providing a big body presence down low and a keen acumen on the penalty kill. As the only current Predator with a Stanley Cup ring, he has the respect of a group of players who would like to earn their own.
Developing his players' chemistry on-ice is a priority for Predators coach Barry Trotz, but the only bench boss Nashville has ever had knows that what his players do off of the ice translates to results on it as well.
Speaking after the team acquired Kostitsyn from the Montreal Canadiens, Trotz made a remark about where the Belarusian's stall would be located inside the Nashville locker room. Some wondered whether or not Trotz was joking when he said that Kostitsyn would not be sitting next to younger brother Sergei. The elder Kostitsyn's nameplate now hangs in a stall far away from his brother's, proving that Trotz was serious.
Twice a finalist for the Jack Adams Award and in the process of guiding his team to its seventh playoff berth in its last eight seasons, Trotz always appears to know the right buttons to push with his players in order to get the results he is looking for.
After being held off the score sheet in his first game as a Predator, Andrei Kostitsyn has posted back-to-back two-point games. In Nashville's March 3 victory in Florida, he had a goal and an assist to record his first points as a Predator. He followed that effort with a pair of assists in a home loss to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Following his trade from Buffalo, Gaustad missed one game with an upper-body injury, so the contest against the Panthers was his first as a Predator. Nashville wanted to get stronger in the faceoff circle and the 6-foot-5 Gaustad did not disappoint in winning 68 percent of his draws against Florida.
After that game, Trotz remarked how happy he was for Nashville general manager David Poile when asked about the first of the Predators' three goals in the game. That goal was scored by Andrei Kostitsyn and assisted by Guastad and Gill.
He may have been happy for Poile but those assets are ones Trotz hopes takes him further into the playoffs than he and the Predators have ever advanced previously. That would make everyone in the Nashville organization happy.
