Predators pick up option on Trotz, coaching staff

?Teams and ownership change coaches and managers for that matter way, way too much, and really for not a lot of supporting reasons to do it. I chose Barry Trotz. He was a young coach who had never coached in the National Hockey League. Now he?s second in seniority …,? Poile said.

?It?s an improving team and an improving coach with an improving coaching staff,? Poile said. ?Again, we?re going to do this together.?

Poile picked up the option on coach Barry Trotz and his assistants for next season Friday as a reward for the best season in franchise history. That includes Brent Peterson and Peter Horachek, goaltending coach Mitch Korn and video coach Robert Bouchard.

?I?m happy and proud we get to come back and hopefully take care of some unfinished business,? said Trotz, who is 283-276-97 with the only NHL team he has ever coached. ?We have to take the next step.?

The Predators had chosen not to pick up that option before the 2006-07 season, and Poile said last week the move was to let everyone focus on the season. The Predators responded with 110 points and finished third in the NHL with a record 51 victories.

Nashville is the only team to make the playoffs in each of the last three seasons with more regular-season points than the year before. The Predators went from 74 in 2002-03 to 91 in 2003-04 and 106 in 2005-06.

But Nashville finished with the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and lost to No. 5 seeded San Jose in the quarterfinals in five games for a second straight year.

?That?s our hurdle. That?s the last hurdle we have to get over, and we have to get over that together,? Poile said. ?He and I are on the same page. He?s very bullish on his staff, and everybody clearly deserved to come back.?

Poile took his time, met individually with all the players and spent the past week meeting with Trotz on how the Predators can improve and finally win their first postseason series.

Improvement won?t necessarily be in the regular season. The Predators finished three points behind President?s Trophy winner Buffalo and Central Division rival Detroit.

?I could argue we could have less points and have a better year,? Poile said. ?It would be simplified by saying we won a couple rounds in the playoffs.?

Trotz is the only coach the Predators have had, and he ranks 16th all-time in most games coached with the same team with 656. Lindy Ruff with Buffalo is the only active coach who has coached more games (738) with the same team.

A big focus for next season will be penalties.

The Predators improved their discipline during the regular season, trimming penalties from 533 in 2005-06 to 387 this season. That took them from the third-most penalized team to the ninth-least penalized team in the span of one season.

But the Predators lost that control in their series with San Jose, and Poile said he talked with Trotz about having punishment to help keep players in line. Injuries that limited their roster kept Trotz from benching players who went to the penalty box too often.

Trotz said players will be held accountable.

?I don?t think they?re going to think twice about stepping too far out of line,? Trotz said.