Coming off of their first regulation loss of the 2014-15 campaign, the Nashville Predators practiced for upward of 70 minutes on Monday morning at Centennial Sportsplex.

The Preds fell 3-0 to Pittsburgh on Saturday night, and while the team obviously wasn’t thrilled with the outcome over the weekend, Monday’s session afforded an opportunity to put that game in the rearview and look to what’s ahead.

“You’re going to lose games in this league,” defenseman Roman Josi said. “We had a pretty good start [to the season] but we weren’t happy with the game against Pittsburgh. We didn’t think we played our best game, but they’re a good team and have a lot of skilled players. You just need to find a way to get back on track and hopefully win the next game. You’re going to lose some games, but you’ve got to get right back to work and win the next one.”

The club will skate again on Tuesday morning in Nashville before heading off on a six-game, 12-day road trip through western Canada and the central U.S., making stops in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, St. Louis and Dallas before returning home.

The team skated in Winnipeg and Chicago on back-to-back nights earlier in October, but the upcoming trip will mark the first lengthy excursion away from Music City on the season.

Matt Cullen, who currently remains listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury, began taking some rushes alongside Derek Roy and Craig Smith on Monday. As a result, the forward trios had a different look throughout the practice.

Line combos were as follows:

Forwards:

Forsberg – Ribeiro – Neal

Cullen* – Roy – Smith

Bourque – Wilson – Jokinen

Nystrom – Gaustad – Beck

Clune – Jarnkrok – Stalberg

(Mike Fisher also rotated in during today’s practice)



*On Injured Reserve

Defensemen:

Josi – Weber

Volchenkov – Jones

Ekholm – Ellis

Bartley

Quotables:

Roman Josi on heading out on the road as a team:

“It’s always fun on the road. You get to go to dinners and spend a lot of time with your teammates. We’ve played a lot of home games so far, so it’s good to get on the road. We’re going to need to win games on the road too, and it starts with this big road trip. I think it’s good to have it early in the year.”

Peter Laviolette on road trips:

“I think all road trips are a chance and an opportunity for [the players] to get to spend some time together. I like the way we played on the road [earlier this season]. I thought there were quite a few periods where we played pretty well, so we have to play our game. Ultimately, that’s what is always a little more challenging in somebody else’s building, but that’s what determines outcomes is how well your teams plays and executes what you’re trying to do on the ice. I don’t think anything really changes other than location, but it’s a chance for the guys to get away and spend more time with each other. That’s not a bad thing.”

Shot of the Day:



