First period: Roman Josi’s ice time – The Predators captain has heard his name called early and often on the young season and is already logging a lot of ice time. Josi entered this season averaging just shy of 25 minutes of ice time per game for his career.

That’s a heavy lift for just about anyone, but the Swiss blueliner has seen more than that early this season. At 34, Josi would seem to be in the range where most players would be slowing down and seeing their roles and ice time reduced.

That’s not the case with Josi, who is so far defying Father Time. He was a finalist for the Norris Trophy last season and won the award as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2020.

Second Period

Line Combinations – Finding the right balance with line combinations sometimes involves real time experimentation. Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly and Gustav Nyquist appear to once again be set as the team’s top forward line. The team’s fourth line also appears to be relatively set with Cole Smith, Michael McCarron and Mark Jankowski.

The other two lines are what remains to be determined. Free agency acquisitions Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault appear likely to play together, but who will center that line has so far been a work in progress.

Both Tommy Novak and Colton Sissons have seen time between the two high-scoring veterans. Jankowski has even seen some time in the middle of those two as well.

Getting the line combinations set and them developing chemistry is a priority for head coach Andrew Brunette.

Third Period

50 for Forsberg? – After a monster 2023-24 campaign from the magnificently mustachioed Forsberg in which he scored 48 goals, he could become the first Predator to score 50 in a season if he improves just slightly upon his performance from last season.

Forsberg was healthy last season and remaining so this season will be a key toward hitting 50 in 2024-25.

With additional firepower on the roster in Stamkos and Marchessault, there is the possibility that the scoring on the team will be more spread out, but his new high-scoring teammates will also make the Predators more difficult to defend, and Forsberg could even see some more open ice since teams can’t necessarily just focus on trying to shut him down.