Barry Trotz rescued Sergei Kostitsyn during their time in Nashville

Former NHL defenseman Hal Gill does not have fond memories of forward Sergei Kostitsyn during his time in Montreal.

“He was awful in Montreal, Gill said on the Spittin Chiclets podcast. He was a bad teammate, a bad person. And I was like ‘I don’t want to be around this guy’.”

But to his astonishment, Gill discovered a whole new Kostitsyn in Nashville when he joined the Predators in a trade from the Canadiens.

“He comes right up to me and immediately he’s like ‘hey, what’s up?’ How are you doing?’ And I was like okay, that’s not him. We had a conversation. And he was playing well here. He played really well in Nashville.”

Wanting to get to the bottom of this story, Gill went to head coach Barry Trotz for answers. The head coach explained how having breakfast with Kostitsyn was the key to his change in attitude as Trotz told Gill:

“‘I had cereal with him every morning.’ [Trotz] would show up at the rink and just wait until he’d walk in and get a bowl of cereal and sit next to him, and just talk to him.”

Trotz had an incredible impact on Kostitsyn’s career in Nashville as he finished first in scoring (tied with Martin Erat) in his first season with the Predators, with 50 points , including 23 goals, in 77 games in 2010-2011. The following season, when Gill joined the club, Kostitsyn put up 43 points, including 17 goals, in 75 games.

A bowl of cereal a day with Trotz will bring out the best in you.

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