Preds Notes & Quotes: Training Camp Day 1

The boys are back.
Excitement was in the air as players hit the ice Friday for the first day of practice and scrimmages at Predators training camp presented by Vanderbilt Health, and the optimism surrounding this year's team was palpable.

Here are some of the top quotes of the day from Preds players and head coach John Hynes on offseason activities, building a team identity and more.
On starting training camp
Roman Josi: It doesn't matter how many training camps you have; it's always exciting to be back for the first day. Practices are good. They're fast paced. Everybody's excited. Everybody's motivated, so it's a lot of fun.

Matt Duchene:Today is one of the best days of the year, always. It's so fun to get out with the boys and it's hard work, but we welcome it. … We'd say everyday, 'Geez, can't wait for training camp.' So that's always a great feeling and a great thing when your whole team feels that way.
Filip Forsberg: Camp is just about finding your legs, finding that hockey again. I mean, it's obviously situations that you can't really practice in the summer with guys around you and battling and stuff like that you pick up pretty quick here in camp, and I think that's kind of where you have to start and then get the chemistry kind of going.
Nino Niederreiter: There's a lot of stuff to take in. There's a lot of new faces, new structure and all those things so you've just got to focus very hard and try to do the right thing right from the get go and battle hard to compete. … It's not always easy to come into a new team and learn a new structure, but you've just got to give yourself time a little bit. You don't have to do everything perfect the first day, and I think that's something which you've just got to be smart about it. But at the same time, you want to make sure you adjust to the system right away as quick as you can and feel comfortable around the guys.

Hynes: We talked with the guys yesterday in the opening meeting just about really trying to take advantage of every day because obviously, it's a little bit of a shorter camp with the Global Series games. So we try to take advantage of every day. And you know, I really liked the fact that a lot of our veteran core players, very similar to last year, are just driving the intensity, driving the execution.I thought all three groups practiced well. We really liked the scrimmages, that's something we talked with the guys about. We wanted to have a lot of pace and then strong competitiveness and maybe not huge body checks, but really competitive on the puck and getting ourselves game ready. So credit to the guys. I thought it was a good day.
On the offseason addition of Ryan McDonagh
Josi: He's such an amazing player. And obviously what he accomplished speaks for itself with the two Stanley Cups the last few years and going to finals. He's just a really tough player to play against [with] a lot of experience. Amazing guy. I got to spend some time with him the last couple of weeks, and he's a great leader - obviously, he was a captain, too.
Duchene: I said last year even that his guy might be the hardest guy to play against in the league … So it's so nice to have him on our back end.

Hynes: To get a guy like Ryan was really special and something that we jumped at the chance to do because, you know, I think when you look at him on the ice and how he plays the game, he's been able to win. He plays a key role. He plays a hard role, but he just plays the game the right way. Very consistent in what he does. And I think the way he plays - it brings a team together because he plays in the hard areas all the time. But even just talking to him, having spent some time with him, just his presence - being a former captain, having won two Cups, coming from Tampa as a captain in the Rangers. You know, he's a real personable guy, but there's a maturity in the presence of our room. He's all business at the right times, and I think he's gonna be great for our younger players. … I know there's a ton of respect for him. So he's going to be a real valuable piece on and off the ice for us.
On the offseason addition of Nino Niederreiter
Josi: He's a hard player to play against. We played against him a lot the last couple of years, and he plays physical, He can score a lot of goals, really talented with the puck and he's tough around the net. He gets pucks in the corners, he goes to the net, he gets those ugly goals. An amazing guy, too. I've known him for such a long time, and we're really good friends.
Duchene: Nino has been an unbelievable player his whole career. Just a great two-way guy, heavy, hard to play against, physical and can score.
On the rookies at training camp
Duchene: This team's done an amazing job of drafting and signing guys and finding guys, and you see some of them a lot in our lineup … The scouting staff and management has done an amazing job drafting and signing these kids. A lot of size, a lot of speed, a lot of skill. So it's good to see,
Hynes:The rookies have been pretty impressive since they've come back this year. The first couple of practices before we went to Carolina you could tell that it looked like a different team than it was last year - just more mature. The practices were very good, they were crisp, they were competitive. And then they looked good in rookie camp and now they've come in today and you know, as we told the players, we feel like we worked really hard this offseason to try to bring in players, whether it's free agents, whether it's invites, draft picks, trades, to have whoever was in was to be able to give us strong depth. And we feel like we have really good depth throughout our group, whether they're going to be here or they're going to be in Milwaukee so I think they've done a good job on day one.
On building a team identity and contending for a Stanley Cup
Hynes:We want to be a tough team to play against and an even tougher team to beat. So I think when you do that, you want to make sure that we play fast. We want to be very competitive with the puck. We want to be able to play with structure and when we don't have the puck that guys are committed to be able to check the right way. And then I think like in everything, the sport is difficult so we want to have mental and physical toughness.
Josi:There's a lot of confidence in our room. I think the season obviously didn't end the way we wanted, and I think we took a good look in the mirror at what it takes to win in this league … We took a big step towards the right direction.
Forsberg:It is day one - we can't take any of our success from last year for granted. A lot of guys had career years and that's great, but we have to go earn it again. Obviously guys that we bring in are gonna have to do the same thing. They've proven themselves so I'm not necessarily worried about it from their perspective, but at the same time, our strength has always been working and I think that's kind of where we have to start. We're going to have to put the work in in camp, and we're definitely a better team than we were a year ago.

McDonagh: I think the most important thing with this group is you're not trying to think big picture too much. We've got a great mixture of experienced veteran guys, older guys that have played a while in the league, and a great mixture of young guys that are still hungry and trying to establish themselves. So we'll just take it one day at a time, one practice or game at a time, and I think that's going to be our mentality going forward. … There's no greater feeling than winning a Stanley Cup]. It's hard to describe. And as soon as you do get a taste of it, you definitely want to repeat that again and go through the process and go through that journey with the group of guys and, and just feel that reward at the end of all that hard work. So like I said, we're building our identity here early in the season, the way we want to play, what's expected of us each day, and we've got a great coaching staff that's going to put together a plan and put guys in position to succeed.
**Duchene:** We've got all the pieces here on paper. But the game's not played on paper. So we've got to make sure that the guys that had good seasons last year have got to do the same thing again. And then these new guys, they come in and do their thing, which is just going to add to it. We love our team. We're confident and I think we're coming in a little bit under the radar, which is a great spot to be in. Our day to day is managing expectations, and you can't win the Stanley Cup in November. You can't win it in October. You can't even win it in April. So you've got to make sure that we're just setting short term goals and achieving that as we go.
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and
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.