Josh Cooper

jcooper2@tennessean.com

Every time he said "offense" the crowd cheered.

Peter Laviolette stuck with the party line Sunday during his introduction to Predators fans at the Music City Sports Festival, and it was clear he knew what buttons to push.

"I guess my thought process on the game and the style early on is that I decided to play with the puck, and I would rather play somewhere else other than my end," the new Predators coach said to whoops and hollers from a few hundred fans at Music City Center.

"However we could pressure that up ice, or pressure it through the neutral zone, get the puck, get it out of our zone, and play it down there. So it's been a style I'm accustomed to, and something I'm looking forward to bringing here to Nashville."

It was the first time fans got to see the man who will guide the Predators into the next era. The contract for Barry Trotz, the coach since the inaugural season, was not renewed, and Laviolette was hired in early May.

When he was brought out to the crowd, Laviolette shook hands with fans in the front row. When a fan asked him to introduce his family, he obliged and brought the entire Laviolette clan to the stage with him — except their pet turtle Frank.

Much of the event was about pomp, circumstance and getting fans accustomed to a new face guiding the franchise, but I had several takeaways from the hour-long session:

The term "win the press conference" is so overrated and means little to what happens in the future, but the fans clearly seemed ignited.

Although I joked about the Pavlovian cheers to the word "offense," Laviolette's emphasis clearly struck a note.

Trotz's teams were often defense-first, and his critics contended the style was boring. A lot of it might have had to do with the absence of strong offensive players, of course.

Laviolette, however, made clear that he's going to bring a different brand of hockey, and players will need to adapt to his puck-possession style. New assistant coach Kevin McCarthy said he believes Laviolette can get through to underachievers forwards such as Viktor Stalberg and Colin Wilson.

"Guys like Stalberg and Wilson can learn from that offensive system that we use," McCarthy said. "It's basically a lot of hard work and precision and doing things at the right time. You need to have skill for that, and they certainly have it."

Asked about Nashville's young forwards — specifically Filip Forsberg and Calle Jarnkrok — Laviolette waxed optimistic. Developing young offensive players is considered one of the coach's strengths.

"Having young players on your team in the NHL these days is almost a must, it's almost mandatory … their youth, their enthusiasm and their speed," he said. "And they come in almost a higher level of fitness and preparedness, to go out and compete in the NHL and play in the NHL."

Laviolette really likes young defenseman Seth Jones.

Laviolette, who coached Jones with Team USA at the recent World Championships in Belarus, gushed about the blueliner's ability.

Jones, the fourth overall pick of the draft last year, started with Team USA on the second defense pairing but moved his way up to the top role. He was named the tournament's best defenseman.

"To be able to help be a part of his future and watch him grow and develop into the player he's going to be is going to be something special for all of us," Laviolette said. "For me, and for you, and for the city of Nashville, just a tremendous talent."

It was unclear how the coaching staff will look.

In the past with Laviolette, McCarthy coached the defense. Assistant Phil Housley, a hire of general manager David Poile last year, had been considered the long-term solution for coaching the blueliners.

McCarthy sounded like he would have no problem coaching the forwards — a position he handled with the Hurricanes — if Housley remains with the defense: "It's not like I haven't done any of that in my career," he said.

But what of assistant Lane Lambert, who worked with the forwards with Trotz, and goaltending coach Mitch Korn? Their status wasn't addressed much. Lambert is under contract next season. Korn's contract expires June 30, however, and he has yet to indicate publicly if he wants to remain with the Predators.

"I think through time we will work through all of that," Laviolette said of the coaching roles.

Laviolette didn't promise a Stanley Cup, but …

The coach walked a fine line between optimism and realism when asked whether he could turn the Predators into Stanley Cup champions.

Said Laviolette, who won a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes and took the Flyers to a Stanley Cup Final:

"I would feel good if this team, and these players and this staff and this organization and this fan base and this city of Nashville built something that was so special, that at the end of the day, you looked back at it, and you said, 'That was one of the greatest things we've ever done.' "

"Along the way, if people start to believe in that, and people start to say, 'this is something special' — and it's not just a coach, and it's not just an assistant coach, it's not one player, it's an entire group that becomes a family — anything is attainable, and anything can be accomplished."

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