Predators Valuing First True Training Camp in Two Seasons

Preparing for an NHL regular season is certainly no walk in Centennial Park - and without a proper training camp, it's that much more difficult.
Following two consecutive far-from-normal stints that featured varying forms of ramp-up ahead of competition, the Nashville Predators took the ice at Centennial Sportsplex in traditional training-camp fashion this week for their first team activities of the season.
Like much else in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic threw quite a wrench in consecutive NHL seasons. In 2020, after the NHL shutdown in March, the Preds spent more than 12 weeks away from the ice before a very brief preparation period in mid-July for the NHL Bubble in Edmonton.
Then, just three months after the conclusion of the bubble, the team took the ice for an abbreviated camp in January 2021. Without a single preseason game and a hasty sequence of practices, the Preds embarked on the 56-game NHL regular season.

"The pandemic was challenging in the sense that we came back and you didn't have an opportunity to work with a lot of the players in the organization and the training camps were so short," Predators Head Coach John Hynes recalled. "We didn't have exhibition games or the length of time that we have now]."
While many oddities remain, this year, a
[roster
of 55 potential Predators are gearing up for the 2021-22 season with a three-week camp featuring six preseason games beginning this weekend - a return to much of what is expected ahead of the start of a new campaign.
"It really sucked the last couple years to feel like we were robbed a little bit of our NHL experience, and so to be able to get that back, that's something that I really appreciate," Preds forward Matt Duchene said. "I'm really grateful to have a normal preseason], and I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth in."
Before the Preds open their preseason schedule on Sunday with a doubleheader against the Panthers in South Florida, plenty of work will be put in on the homefront. With a fresh NHL season on the horizon and a full couple days of team activities, energy and enthusiasm are even more amplified than previous preseasons.
But as training camp begins, some of the mainstays inside the Predators' locker room have departed. From legendary goaltender Pekka Rinne's
[retirement
to
trades
that sent lineup-staples Ryan Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson elsewhere, a wave of youth has struck the club.
With many new pieces and a clean slate in front of them, Nashville's veterans have begun using training camp to foster relationships with their new teammates in hopes of creating the chemistry needed to succeed on the ice.

"We have a lot of new pieces in our locker room," Captain Roman Josi said. "Those three weeks [of training camp] are really important for us because you have to start working on things with your teammates, you've got to get to know guys a little bit better."
One face who is hardly new to the Predators locker room but unfamiliar with full training camps in Nashville is Hynes. Despite being at the helm for nearly two seasons, this week marked his first full opportunity to instill habits and culture throughout his entire team, top to bottom, from the very start of a fresh slate.
"I'm a big believer in training camp. I think it's really important to establish your habits and your identity," Hynes said Friday. "It's really exciting to have three weeks… to get to know the players, really establish how we want to play and put them through a really great three weeks of hard work and really try to become connected as a group."
While preaching practice habits and establishing culture, Hynes is also given a chance to observe a number of intriguing prospects throughout all levels of the organization. With the 55-man roster split into three separate groups of competitors, the head coach is able to take stock of how key prospects compete against solidified NHL players.
"Every player is here for a different reason. There's some players in camp that are junior players here for the experience, and it gives us an opportunity as an organization to be able to get to know the players," Hynes said. "They have a real strong opportunity to see how we do things, how we want to go about our business, how we want to play, what it's like to practice and play against NHL players - so that's one component of the training camp that is really important that we [haven't] had the opportunity to do.
"Then, you have guys in Milwaukee that are coming in that are trying to push to be able to make the team and really leave a good impression. Whether they make the team or don't, you're also evaluating the depth of your organization of if we have injuries [who] are the call-up players that we're counting on… then you have the players that you know could be on the NHL team or players that are just right on the cusp of making it now - for them it's really about competing for the positions on the team for the ice time, for the roles."
Alongside the hungry youngsters, Hynes does have a core leadership group that he will lean on throughout camp. In the places of former leaders like Rinne, Ellis and Arvidsson, many of the Preds vets are prepared to rise to the occasion and help gel this year's group.
"As a veteran, you kind of set the culture in the room and I think a lot of the young guys, especially guys who are new here, come into a new team and kind of look at the veterans and try to follow their lead a bit," Josi said. "You set the culture, so I think it's up to us to set that standard in training camp and make sure that everybody kind of follows that lead."
"It's a role that we need to be on top of… No matter who comes and goes and whatever the circumstances are, it's our job as an older guy in the League that's been around, to set the bar and be an example," centerman Ryan Johansen said. "It's not so much talking; it's about just going out there and doing it and then having everyone else jump on board with the older guys and do what needs to be done."
Building team camaraderie and developing youth talent will be at the forefront of Hynes' organizational focus over the next three weeks. But individually, a full training camp offers a routine that helps each and every player both mentally and physically prepare for the grueling season ahead. From first-day, on-ice testing to post-practice locker room banter, training camp lays the foundation for a successful Opening Night.
"Right from today, it's about mentally and physically setting yourself up for success for Oct. 14. To be at a level of conditioning and mental focus of being able to go out there and just have it be muscle memory [is key]," Johansen said. "It's all about day-by-day putting in the work and the focus. So, when game one comes, you're not worried or thinking about anything, you're just going out there and doing your job."
While that ever-important season opener still remains in the future, Preds fans will get a glimpse at pieces of the potential pro roster this coming Sunday as the team travels to Florida for a pair of preseason contests with the Panthers - and those outings will offer each member of the training camp squad the opportunity to see an opponent on the other side of the ice.
"It will obviously be great to battle some other players other than your own in preseason like the last few years," forward Filip Forsberg said. "I think we have been doing a good job of prepping for the previous playoff bubble and the season, but it'll be different playing real games against other teams and getting the full extent of training camp that we have been waiting for. I think it'll be great."