Hynes Talks Return To Play Plan, Goaltending, Preds' Potential

For the past three months, John Hynes has been preparing to lead his team again, whenever and however that may come about. Now, all that planning will soon be put into motion.

The head coach of the Predators joined

, ESPN 102.5 The Game, on Monday afternoon, and Hynes had plenty to discuss as the NHL moves forward with its Return To Play Plan.

The Preds last played a game on March 10, a victory in Montreal for their third-straight win. Instead of trying for a fourth two nights later in Toronto, Hynes and his team were on a plane back to Nashville, as the NHL went on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But as professional sports leagues all over the world make plans to play games once more, the Predators - and the rest of the NHL's member clubs - are getting set to return to the ice.

Phase 2 of the League's Return To Play Plan is underway, and the NHL and NHLPA have agreed upon a July 10 start date for Phase 3 (formal training camps) provided conditions are safe and the two parties have reached an overall agreement on resuming play.

Hired by the Preds in January, Hynes hasn't had a formal training camp with this group - a chance to really start fresh and provide his team with the education that comes with a traditional camp. In July, he'll get that chance.

"I love training camp," Hynes said. "You can make a big difference as a coach in training camp. I think it's how you plan it out and how organized you are, [and you can] hit the ground running. Players come in knowing the expectations, physically, mentally, how we want to practice… You have an opportunity to teach, install and condition, without games every other day… I'm really excited to get back with the group and build upon some things we liked, but also now we've got a chance… to really iron out some things we want to be really good at."

No formal date has been announced as to when the NHL's 24-team tournament would begin, but the hope would be to see games sometime in August. When the puck does drop, the Predators will face the Arizona Coyotes in a best-of-five Qualifying Round to determine who advances to the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There are plenty of elements that will go into Hynes and his group having a successful summertime training camp, before playing games against the Coyotes, but a few things stick out to the bench boss when it comes to a fast start against the competition.

Hynes listed goaltending, conditioning and special teams as some of the more vital attributes his team will need to have in order to find success, and that first item will be an intriguing storyline to follow.

As the Predators entered the pause, Juuse Saros had just posted the second-longest shutout streak in franchise history and was playing arguably the best hockey of his NHL career. That left Pekka Rinne to watch from the bench, not necessarily because he wasn't playing well, Hynes said, but because Saros was playing so well that the Preds wanted to let him ride the hot streak.

Regardless of the stat lines three months ago, a decision will eventually have to be made on who will be guarding the Nashville crease.

"We've talked to [Rinne and Saros] over this break, and I think both players have to come back with the mindset that they want to have the starting job," Hynes said. "I don't think it's probably smart or fair going into training camp to say that one guy is ahead of the other only because we don't know how they're going to come back. Are they going to be ready? Is one guy going to be playing really well and one guy's not? We believe both guys can help us win, but it's going to be a bit of a competition."

There will also be decisions to make on the forward lines and defensive pairings. Hynes has enough familiarity with his group by now to know which combos he likes, but there will also be opportunities for others to step up and fill roles throughout the lineup.

"Our last 10 games prior to the pause, I think there was some pretty good chemistry and it seemed as though, at that point in time, the team was getting into the rhythm and guys were playing to their identity," Hynes said. "The roles and ice times and who's playing with whom, it was filtering in the way that it should be… We looked at some analytical stuff just to give me some line pairs and combos that were very effective, and there's some lines that we think were very effective, some guys we will play together and I think chemistry is going to be really important.

"It's important to get up and running quickly, so we'd like to put players that are familiar with each other that have had past success together, and let's try to see if we can pick up right away where there's good chemistry. I think the quicker we can get to that chemistry, the quicker we're going to gel as a team and I think that's really important going from a short training camp right into right into playoff hockey."

No matter who's dressed for that first game against Arizona, it will only be the start of what each of the 24 teams hope is a two-month long journey to end the most unique season in NHL history.

The Predators feel they have that chance, and even though the journey on this campaign began long ago, a new beginning could yield excellent results.

"This is a group that has gone through adversity, which I think you have to go through to be a great team," Hynes said. "To be a championship team, you have to be able to get through it at some point in the season, but can you rebound from tough situations and tough times? These guys have had a pause, I think they feel really good about the game and our team at the pause… I know it's a hungry group, and I think you're going to see guys come back that are going to play hard. I think they're going to have a lot of responses from some guys that have had down years, and hopefully we can get this team clicking at a level that it can click at, because it's a team that has the potential, and has the talent, to be able to win the Stanley Cup."