By Jim Diamond

For the first on-ice activity of this week’s development camp, the Nashville Predators put their prospects through a skating test on the Bridgestone Arena ice Tuesday morning, and it was anything but a leisurely offseason skate.

One-by-one, the prospects were put through a rigorous test under the watchful eye of strength and conditioning coach David Good. The players skated through a predetermined route. While each skate was in the neighborhood of 25-30 seconds, somewhat shorter than a normal shift in a game, the players were made to do the test six times in a row, and with very little rest time in between.

Following each rep, Good called out the time to an assistant at the bench area who was carefully logging each time. In most cases, the players’ times increased a little with each successive rep. Many of the other players, some already done with their tests while others still waiting their turn, hung around the player benches watching and yelling encouragement to their teammates. And by the end of the sixth repetition with their legs and lungs burning, the players needed all of the help they could get.

The prospects will return to the Bridgestone ice for workouts Wednesday and Friday from 9:00am – 12:15 pm, and the week will culminate with a scrimmage game Saturday afternoon at 3:30. All of these sessions are open to the public.

If you have a minute and don’t hate slideshows, please take a stroll through the images from Tuesday’s testing session in the attached gallery. See something you like, don’t like, photography tips – any feedback either in the comments section or on Twitter would be appreciated.