The Nashville Predators opened their preseason schedule on Sept. 20 in Tampa against the Tampa Bay Lightning, starting a compressed ramp to Opening Night with little margin for error. The first of four preseason games began at 4 p.m. CT at Benchmark International Arena.
That opener matters because Nashville has 55 players in training camp and must get to 23 by Sept. 28, nine days before Opening Night on Oct. 1. The NHL regular season is going to 84 games from 82, while the preseason has been cut to four, and veteran players can appear in no more than two of those games.
Andrew Brunette called it “a unique camp” and said the short schedule, the four exhibition games and the mandatory days off leave “not a lot of time to be prepared.” He said he is looking for urgency and compete early, because those habits are the quickest path to chemistry in a stretch where the Predators cannot wait long for the group to come together.
That urgency comes with a problem Nashville would rather not have: Vitali Pinchuk was hurt on the first day of training camp practice and is listed day-to-day with an upper-body injury. For a player trying to make an impression in a four-game preseason, every missed shift narrows the runway even more, and it adds one more moving part to a roster picture that is already tight.
The first cut date is the one that will shape everything after it. By Sept. 28, the Predators have to be down to 23 players, and that leaves the coaching staff with only the briefest window to sort out who has earned a place before the regular season begins on Oct. 1. Nashville’s preseason games can be watched regionally on The Spot – Nashville 28 and streamed free on the Nashville Predators app, with audio on 102.5 The Game and the Preds Radio Network.
