Josh Cooper

jcooper2@tennessean.com

Predators coach Peter Laviolette will appear at the Music City Sports Festival at 12%3A15 p.m. Sunday.

Peter Laviolette will make a grand entrance for Nashville-area sports fans on Sunday.

The new Predators coach is scheduled to be on the main stage at the Music City Sports Festival to talk about his plan for returning the team to the playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

Reporters talked with Laviolette via conference call after he was hired on May 6, but the 12:15 p.m. appearance at Music City Center will be his first forum with Predators fans. He was coaching Team USA in the World Championships, which ran from May 9-25.

Here are three key questions Laviolette is sure to be asked during the session:

CAN HE EXCITE THE FAN BASE?

After missing the playoffs for two straight seasons — and having the same coach since the beginning of the franchise — the Predators had turned stale.

Attendance remained steady for the most part, but the franchise would be on the brink of irrelevancy with another non-playoff year.

Laviolette needs to sell his vision hard this weekend, and do it with both gusto and bravado. He is known as a stirring speaker, and he'll need to deliver a haymaker Sunday.

Fans need to come away from his appearance and simply say "Wow."

WHO WILL COACH WHAT?

Laviolette brings assistant Kevin McCarthy with him to the Predators, but what does it mean for the rest of the coaching staff?

McCarthy was Laviolette's defensive coach during his previous tenure, but Predators general manager David Poile brought in Phil Housley last year for that role.

Will McCarthy continue to work with the defense, or will that continue to be Housley's job?

Also: what will Laviolette do with Lane Lambert? The three-year Predators assistant and former Milwaukee Admirals head coach seems to be in limbo at the moment, with McCarthy being Laviolette's guy and Housley being Poile's guy.

WHAT DOES HE KNOW ABOUT THE FORWARDS?

Part of the reason the Predators hired Laviolette was to work with their forwards.

Does he think they have a chance to be dynamic scorers as some of the franchise's scouts and management believe?

Or does he see some — Colin Wilson, for example — as works in progress?

At this point, he should have a decent grasp of Nashville's personnel, something he didn't really have the first time reporters spoke with him.

Reach Josh Cooper at 615-726-8917 and on Twitter @joshuacooper.