Peter Laviolette hasn’t coached in Philadelphia since he was fired in October of 2013.
Now the bench boss of the Nashville Predators, Laviolette will go up against his old team, the Flyers, on Saturday. It’s the first time he’ll coach against Philadelphia since he was shown the door.
In the standings, this match-up should favor Nashville. The Predators sit third in the Western Conference, while the Flyers are 11th in the East but riding a three-game winning streak.
Laviolette, who coached Philadelphia to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final but was fired after an 0-3 start to last season, wasn’t trying to over-hype this meeting.
“It’s straight Nashville,” Laviolette told CSN Philadelphia. “I think you always recognize where your old stomping grounds are, but I don’t think that matters as much as our team and being ready to play coming off the break and how we execute and the energy we play with. All of that will factor into the game, not my previous locations that I’ve stopped at.”