As the calendar moves to November, the Predators will see the road more than they did in the season’s first month. After playing seven of their 10 October games at Bridgestone Arena, the Predators will play nine of 15 November games on the road.

The team’s annual road trip that coincides with Bridgestone’s hosting of the CMA Awards will keep them on the road for five-straight games over the course of two weeks, sandwiched between home games Nov. 9 and Nov. 23.

After a slow start, gaining standings points on the road will be key to the Predators digging out of the early-season hole that resulted.

Special Teams

Many of the offseason free agent signings the Predators made July 1 were meant to bolster the roster offensively, specifically the team’s power play, which was in the middle of the NHL pack last regular season and virtually invisible in their first-round playoff loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

But with so many new pieces to the power play, the Predators are still producing similarly to last regular season with the man advantage. The team has made positive progress on the penalty kill, where the Predators are among the league’s best to this point.

Last season, the team was 22nd in the league with a 76.9% success rate on the PK. This season’s cast of penalty killers is largely the same as was called upon in 2023-24. Only free agent defenseman signing Brady Skjei, is among Nashville’s top 10 in short-handed ice time per game who was not on the roster last season.

First Line

In the Oct. 26 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, head coach Andrew Brunette split up the Filip Forsberg-Ryan O’Reilly-Gustav Nyquist trio that has been the team’s top line since the beginning of last season.

“For the betterment of the group, we had to try a few different things,” Brunette said before adding that it was also an attempt to jump-start some others on the team. In saying that, it was not necessarily an indictment of the first line but more of a nod toward shaking things up among the other forwards and trying to find some chemistry among them.

Jonathan Marchessault moved up on the right side of the first line with Nyquist sliding down to the second, playing with Steven Stamkos and Tommy Novak. Juggling lines may continue as Brunette looks to generate some consistency among the forwards.