Get to Know Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette Through Ray Ferraro's Eyes

Ask anyone who knows Andrew Brunette, and they'll tell you the same thing: He does \not\ like to talk about himself.

However, with all due respect to the new Nashville Predators head coach - and the Grammy Award-winning song that suggests otherwise - it's time to talk about Bruno.

Knowing better than to ask Brunette to sing his own praises, one of his oldest friends- former NHL forward and current ESPN broadcaster Ray Ferraro - was more than happy to oblige. Ferraro, an 18-year NHL veteran, was Brunette's teammate on the Atlanta Thrashers for two seasons from 1999-2001 and spoke at length about Brunette's playing career, coaching style, personality and more.

According to Ferraro, Brunette has "no ego" and a unique ability to turn his shortcomings into strengths. What he may have lacked in foot speed, he made up for in intellectual quickness. He's humble, he's relatable, and he's had to earn everything he's been given.

Here is a closer look inside the mind of the man Ferraro calls his favorite teammate of all time:

You've known Brunette for a long time; how would you describe his personality?

Ferraro: "Bruno's my most favorite teammate that I played with in 18 years. I just think he's awesome. I love the guy. He's got an intensity to him that people wouldn't see by his nature. There's a competitiveness to him that maybe isn't first apparent, because he's super funny. He's got a huge, enormous laugh. He's a great storyteller. So I think that kind of was the view of Bruno for a long time. But when I got to meet him in Atlanta, when we played together for two years, I think what I saw pretty quickly was this was a guy that didn't get a chance to play in the NHL till he was 27 and was going on to play 1,000 games in the league - that just doesn't happen. So you have to be super competitive to be able to do that. So I think those two things intertwine - what an amazing guy he is, and how competitive he is, even if he's not smashing his stick over the boards or yelling and screaming a lot, because that's not his style."

How do you think this affable and competitive nature serves him well as a coach?

Ferraro: "He is incredibly smart about the game. Bruno was never going to win a foot race anywhere on the ice, but he played 1,000 games because he knew how to play but he also knows how to talk about the game [in a way] that other people can understand. If you picture the smartest coach ever to be - whoever that is - if they can't get their message to the players, they're just a really smart guy standing behind the bench in a suit. But Bruno has the ability to make people feel like they understand what's going on. And I know as a player, I would have loved to have played for somebody like Bruno because he would find what I do best and try and help me do that the best that I can."

Barry Trotz has praised Brunette for his ability to connect with his players; in your opinion, why do players respond to him so well?

Ferraro: "He's so easy to be around. I think that's one of the first things that all really great coaches have - they have this ability to make people feel like you're all on the same side of the fence, even though there are times when you're the coach and you're not on the same side of the fence because you've got to sit somebody out of the lineup or you've got to cut somebody's ice time. He does it in a way and he gets his message across in a way that people see what he's talking about. They see what his idea is. Not every player in Nashville is going to think every idea that Bruno has is going to be a great one, because it might affect them personally; some guys might not play as much, some guys might play in a different role, whatever it might be. But I can't imagine there's a player that thinks Bruno's not a good guy and a guy they want to play for, even if the role they have is not exactly what they want… He's just a really, really great guy to be around, and I know the players will respond to that."

Brunette has been tasked with improving the Predators offense, both at 5-on-5 and on the power play; why do you think he's the right man for the job?

Ferraro: "Bruno just knows where people are on the ice. He knows where they should be. And the power play has a lot to do with that - people being in the right place at the right time. His mind sees the offensive side of the game really clearly; to him, that's an easy picture… If he didn't have that, he would have never gotten to the NHL. He won the American League scoring title and still didn't get a chance; they felt that he was just not quite quick enough. And then as the league expanded, one of the coolest things about expansion is that guys get opportunities when they might not have had them otherwise. I mean, the guy played on three expansion teams - so it's not like everybody recognized all the time how good he was. And yet he kept staying around because he kept producing. He was the slowest guy on every line he played on - that is without question - and it didn't particularly matter, because he was also probably the smartest guy on every line he played on."