Predators' Head Coach Calls Out Team for Unacceptable 'Standard' of Play

The Nashville Predators are a mess. After a very entertaining and exciting offseason in Nashville, the Preds are off to a terrible 4-9-1 start and are digging themselves quite the hole to get out of early on this season.

After GM Barry Trotz went public with his frustration and brought up 'rebuilding' sooner than later, head coach Andrew Brunette has now gone public with his concerns. After the Preds' 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday, Brunette spoke to NHL.com's Brooks Batten and aired out some dirty laundry. 

We just can't seem to grab any momentum. ... We're just not grasping the connection here with this group, and that's the frustrating part. The record is the record for me. It's more of the process right now. I think we put ourselves, obviously, in a tough spot, but we were 5-10 last year. In this league, you never know what can happen, but for me, the biggest thing is our standard, and our standard has not been upheld here.

Captain Roman Josi hasn't been happy with the Predators start, but things boiled over on Thursday as the Panthers laid a beating on the Preds, and frankly, embarrassed them. "They were just way better than us," captain Roman Josi said. "From start to finish, they kind of embarrassed us out there."

Josi continued, "It feels like there's games like last night (in Washington) we play better. We couldn't get the win, but I thought our game was better. And then come into the night and we take a step back again. ... We've got to get consistency in our game and do it every night. And if you don't do it, you see what happens tonight."

The Predators are not having any fun coming to the rink right now because they can't seem to get on the same page as a collective. They'll look to get back on track Saturday against the Utah HC.

Photo credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images