Did missing out on seeing U2 save Predators?

The popular story about the Nashville Predators, one now nearly two months old, is that their poor record wrapped around the AllStar break in February cost them a scheduled team trip to see U2 perform during their stop in Las Vegas.

“I don’t know if we’re understanding the importance that our mind has to be in the game,” said coach Andrew Brunette, when informing his players that they were being denied the chance to see the Irish rockers perform at Vegas’s magnificent Sphere, “and it can’t be in our vacations.”

The rest of the story is that the Predators, who the Bruins will face Tuesday night in Nashville, sat out the show and then went on a redemptive tear worthy of a U2 song in itself. Prior to Thursday’s 8-4 drubbing by the Coyotes, they went 18 games (16-0-2) without a loss in regulation after a stinging, concert-denying, buzz-killing 9-2 loss to the Stars Feb. 15 in Nashville.

After starting the season with nearly as many regulation losses as wins (2725-2), the Predators by midweek had accumulated 90 points thanks largely to that 16-0-2 romp. They had all but locked up a playoff berth after just missing the cutline last year for the first time since 2014. Never has sitting out a night on The Strip paid such dividends.

The greater truth behind the Predators’ success is the masterful, bold retooling first-year general manager Barry Trotz performed in the days around free agency last July. New on the job, after taking over the corner office from

David Poile, Trotz aggressively changed the roster’s makeup, most notably with the signings of UFAs Ryan O’Reilly, Gustav Nyquist, and Luke Schenn.

Those three experienced hands came aboard for a collective annual cap hit of approximately $10.5 million. Entering weekend play, Nyquist (66 points) and O’Reilly (61) ranked 3-4 on the club’s scoresheet. Schenn, brought aboard to add some vital snarl to the back end, was averaging more than 15 minutes per game but, more importantly, making the opposition think twice about locking crosshairs on franchise defenseman (and captain) Roman Josi.

“I don’t like when Roman takes big hits,” Trotz explained in July when he signed Schenn for three years at $2.75 million per. “Luke makes sure they won’t be coming too often.”

Through 73 games, the prolific Josi had 76 points, a 17-point improvement over last year, a season curtailed by concussion. He also led the league in goals by a defenseman (19), ahead of Cale Makar (18), Rasmus Dahlin (17), and

MacKenzie Weegar (17). Josi could win his second Norris Trophy, leading to the question: Why does he only have one?

In the days leading up to free agency, Trotz also wheeled veteran center

Ryan Johansen to the Avalanche, who this month re-gifted him to the Flyers. Trotz also bought out center Matt Duchene, who had three years remaining at $8 million per.

The pre-U2 slumber aside, the overhaul has proved successful, Trotz making by far last July’s most prudent, effective UFA hires — led by O’Reilly, the ex-Blues center chosen the MVP (Conn Smythe) winner in 2019 when St. Louis clipped the Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

O’Reilly came aboard for four years/ $18 million, and has executed like the “serial winner” Trotz called him on the day of the signing.

“What area [of the game] does he not affect?” a rhetorical Trotz noted that day. Year to year, O’Reilly has produced at both ends, with that same 200foot consistency and composure that Bruins fans watched Patrice Bergeron deliver for a generation.

The Maple Leafs acted slightly ahead of the 2023 trade deadline to bring O’Reilly aboard and he pitched in with nine points in 11 playoff games, helping them finally to make it out of the first round for the first time since 2004. Then they let him walk. Just like they let Zach Hyman skip town in the summer of 2021. Forever the Leafs.

Every team, explained Trotz when making his moves, has its core of players. For the Predators, it’s Juuse Saros in net, Filip Forsberg up front, and Josi in back — similar to the Tuukka Rask, Bergeron, Zdeno Chara model of days gone by in Boston.

“I just needed to change some of that core’s thinking,” explained Trotz, who won the Cup in 2018 as Capitals coach, “some of that mentality.” More recently, Trotz in an ESPN report said he felt the Predators had “too many people that were comfortable.”

Right now, it appears no one will be coming into the second season hotter than the Predators. Being denied their chance to see U2 in February ultimately may lead to their most beautiful day of all. Even if it did all begin with Trotz laying down the melody last July.

OFFSEASON WINS Trotz spent dollars wisely

Without question, Barry Trotz won last July’s annual UFA dollar toss.

Bruins GM Don Sweeney made some effective hires, too, but he fished in shallower (read: cheaper) water, netting roster fillers James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Milan Lucic in the million-dollar pool.

Unlike Trotz, Sweeney was dealing with a roster already close to the max cap and one with multiple holes that needed to be plugged with bona fide NHL talent. His best bang for the puck buck ended up being the one-year, $775,000 deal that he tossed Danton Heinen’s way after extending him a training camp invite.

In Detroit, GM Steve Yzerman nabbed Shayne Gostisbehere, ex- of the Flyers, Coyotes, and Hurricanes, with a one-year deal at $4.125 million. The Ghost this season has been the Winged Wheels’ top producing blue liner (47 points). As of Friday morning, only a dozen defensemen had more points.

Yzerman followed that in November by winning the bidding for Patrick Kane, the ex-Blackhawks icon returning after hip surgery, for one year at $2.75 million. The Showtime right winger, with 40 points in 41 games, has produced in lockstep with Wings captain Dylan Larkin (57 points in 59 games).

Matt Duchene, bought out by the Predators, signed on for one year, $3 million in Dallas and has helped to bolster an offense that has helped the Stars compete among the elite in the West. Ditto for Jonathan Drouin, the ex-Canadien, in Colorado. The left winger signed on for one year, $825,000 and has been one of the Avalanche’s top five producers, filling some of the void left by the long-injured Gabriel Landeskog, Panthers GM Bill Zito also was among the sharpest shoppers in the UFA marketplace, picking up ex-Boston University forward Evan Rodrigues (four years, $12 million) and towering Finnish defenseman Niko Mikkola (three years, $7.5 million). Both have been solid support players for a club that could enter the postseason as the Cup favorite.

ETC. Sabres again are shut out

The Sabres’ official time of death — a 13th consecutive season of missing the playoffs — will be any hour now. A five-win flurry early this month had them flirting briefly with the second wild-card seed in the Eastern Conference. They then lost three of four, including an 8-3 beatdown in Edmonton, and that was essentially the death rattle.

For those who might have lost track, the Sabres have not qualified for the playoffs since the spring of 2011, facing the Flyers in Round 1 only weeks after fracking billionaire Terry Pegula ponied up just shy of $200 million to become the Crossed Swords’ owner.

Outcome: The Flyers clinched the series in seven, despite the best efforts of Buffalo’s top scorer, defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani (seven games, 7 points). Extra points to you if you recall the hyphenated first name or that someone with the last name Gragnani ever played for the Sabres.

A quick summation of the comings and goings alongside Lake Erie since April 2011. The Sabres have had:

■ Four general managers: Darcy Regier, Tim Murray, Jason Botterill, and Kevyn Adams.

■ Seven coaches: Lindy Ruff, Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan, Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger, and Don Granato.

■ Six captains: Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Steve Ott, Brian Gionta, Jack Eichel, and Kyle Okposo ,who was dealt to the Panthers at the March 8 deadline.

■ A truckload of draft picks (103), including 19 in the first round.

■ One owner: Pegula, whose payroll beginning in 2011-12, spanning the 13 DNQs, is now approaching $1 billion. That’s $1 billion and not a single playoff game.

Keller missing out in desert

Despite an encouraging first half, briefly clutching hands around a wildcard seed in the West at the new year, the Coyotes officially fell out of playoff contention midweek. The Desert Dogs have logged four consecutive DNQs and have made but one playoff appearance since 2012. Mercy.

The unfortunate collateral damage to that sad-sack scenario is Clayton Keller, the talented winger whose one year at BU (2016-17) overlapped with Charlie McAvoy’s time in Terrier red.

Keller, 25, is a star and reached the 30-goal plateau each of these last two seasons, but by and large his talents have been lost amid the Coyotes’ protracted dunderings.

How different Keller’s career arc might have been had he opted to stay in residence at the right end of Comm. Ave. for three more years. If so, he could have declared unrestricted free agency in September 2019— just weeks after the Bruins made it to Game 7 of the Cup Final — and then had his pick of 31 offers to turn pro. The local NHL team, forever in need of scorers, no doubt would have been on Keller like moths on cheap woolen hockey socks.

The four-year opt-out option remains largely ignored by US college players. Understandably, kids typically want the dough and promise of fame.

Jimmy Vesey was among the few to elect the free agent path, following his senior season (2015-16) at Harvard. As a UFA, Vesey signed with the Rangers after spurning the Predators and Sabres, both of whom held his rights along his path to free agency.

Meanwhile, Keller has made a load of dough. Money, like time, has a way of healing all wounds. Even before he began the final year of his entry-level deal, he signed an eight-year extension that pays him $7.15 million a season. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he still has four years remaining on a contract that now looks more like a penal sentence than a financial bonanza.

Was Keller ready and equipped to turn pro at the age of 18 in the spring of 2016? Absolutely. As a rookie winger, he produced 23-42–65, not that far removed from the numbers rookie wunderkind Connor Bedard has put up as a center this season with the Blackhawks. They both broke in on AHL-caliber rosters.

However, had Keller chosen to cool his heels and enjoy the full 55-gallon drum of bula bula at BU, he instead today could be wrapping up his fifth full NHL season and possibly already with 50 or 60 playoff games on his résumé, maybe even his name on the Cup once or twice. All that at age 25, the same age he’ll be when emptying out his locker again at the dinky rink operation in Arizona in a couple of weeks.

Again, kids, choose wisely. Though the dream is enticing, in reality it’s only a business.

Murdoch yet another victim

Another sad day on the science side of hockey. A brain autopsy of Bob Murdoch, a fixture on the Kings’ backline in the ’70s, revealed that he was yet another victim of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), joining a lengthening list of former NHL players.

Murdoch’s family made public the diagnosis on Wednesday, a week after members of Chris Simon’s family said they believed the ex-NHL enforcer’s recent suicide at age 52 was directly related to CTE — a diagnosis that only can be confirmed via autopsy.

In a statement released by the Concussion Legacy Foundation, Bev Murdoch, Bob’s wife of nearly 40 years, said she was not surprised by the finding.

“He knew, we all knew, intuitively, what caused his suffering,” she said. “So much more needs to be done in professional hockey to acknowledge and prevent CTE. If not, there will be more people like Bob who will lose many years of their lives.”

Boston University’s CTE Center made the diagnosis. Murdoch, 76, died in August.

The BU scientists have stated for years that concussive and subconcussive hits trigger the devastating neurodegenerative disease. Hockey players are not alone among its athlete victims, but they are an increasing lot, including, among others, the legendary pugilist Bob Probert and the speedy, skilled, and clever Henri “The Pocket Rocket” Richard, a member of the legendary Habs teams of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.

Meanwhile, the NHL continues to eschew its chance to acknowledge the obvious and be at the vanguard of potential life-saving protective measures for the rank and file. It one day will be dragged into the fight, albeit not on the ice but in the courtroom.

Loose pucks

Avangard Omsk, down 3-1 in its KHL playoff series vs. Lokomotiv, rallied to force Game 7 thanks in part to ex-Bruin Ryan Spooner. “Spoons” delivered 1-2–3 in a 4-2 victory in Game 5 and then helped even the series with his two helpers in a 3-2 win Thursday in Game 6. It’s Spooner’s fifth season, and fourth team, in the KHL. He finished third in Omsk’s scoring in the regular season, delivering 23-38–61 in 65 games. Once positioned as a building block in the Bruins’ offense, Spooner’s time in Boston ended when dealt to the Rangers in the February 2018 deadline deal for Rick Nash . . . Looks like Bruins prospect Matias Mantykivi, selected No. 185 in the 2019 draft, could be ready for the North American game. Mantykivi, a left-shot forward, rolled up 19-29–48 in 60 games, third in scoring this season for Ilves Tampere in Finland . . . The Bruins will see plenty of old friend Jeremy Lauzon, one of their three Round 2 picks in 2015, Tuesday night in Nashville. Lauzon, 26, has turned himself into the Fracking Frenchman, drilling everything and everyone in sight. As of Friday morning, he led the NHL with 338 hits. No. 2 on the list, another ex-Bruin, Garnet Hathaway (294). The league recognizes Matt Martin’s 382, recorded with the Islanders in 2014-15, as the single-season record. Lauzon recently told the Nashville media that he has Martin’s mark in his sights, though is “not running around looking for hits.” There’s a bit of relief for Bruins forwards . . . By the way, another Islander, Cal Clutterbuck, became the first NHLer credited with 4,000 hits, delivering smacks 3,998, 3,999, and 4,000 in Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Panthers. Rounding out the hit list’s top four: Martin (3,837), Dustin Brown (3,632), and Alex Ovechkin (3,605). Ovechkin’s goals-to-hits ratio is, shall we say, off the charts . . . If you are looking for Terry O’Reilly’s standing on the hit list, please note: The NHL only began officially tracking the stat in 200506, when “Taz” was 54 and limiting himself to eight hits a night in the

North Shore’s Senior Shuffleboard League. Restraint, ya know?