But Nashville has caught fire since the calendar turned to November, seeing a number of its splits completely reverse course.
Case in point, it's special teams.
In October, the Predators had the NHL's best power play, one that converted at almost 36 percent, but had the second worst penalty kill, allowing a goal more than 33 percent of the time.
However, in November, those numbers have flipped, with Nashville's once explosive power play converting just six times this month while its formerly leaky kill has allowed just one power-play goal among 35 tries.
Among other changing trends: The play of goaltender Pekka Rinne.
After enduring a nightmare month of October, in which he went 1-4-1 with a .906 save percentage and 3.22 goals against, Rinne has been one of the League's best goalies this month, going 7-1-2 with a .952 save percentage and 1.39 goals against.
A stretch of four straight games against Central Division foes began Thursday when the Predators defeated Dallas 5-2 in Nashville. It's the Preds' longest stretch of consecutive division clashes this season and could go a long ways toward predicting how December goes in the Music City.
"Anytime you have a chance to play against Central Division teams, those really are four-point games," Rinne told The Tennessean. "These games are huge. Come February, March, you don't want to look back having this opportunity in November to play four games in a row against Central teams ... and say that we should've been ready, we should've done something differently in those games."