Nashville Predators: Predators News Including Johansen, Saros
Ryan Johansen went down the tunnel after an unfortunate collision against the Ducks. He was listed as day to day until Friday, where he’s now on the IR.
Injuries can happen at any time during an NHL season, with only the luckiest teams making it through without more than 20 man games lost. The Nashville Predators have been a bit unlucky with Ryan Ellis sitting out the majority of the first half of the season. Other than that, only third liners or third pairing guys have been injured for a few games.
Sometimes injuries aren’t the only thing that can take a good player out for a period of time. Waivers have once again taken Juuse Saros to Milwaukee where he’ll likely stay until Wednesday.
Saros news
Another week, another announcement from the Predators that they’re sending Saros down to play in the AHL. I understand why Saros is on his way, as he’ll likely start two games over the weekend. The issue is that Saros hasn’t played well in the AHL, not because of his skill, but likely because of his inconsistent movement. Saros will spend a few days at a time in both Nashville and Milwaukee, with little warning on when he’ll be heading to either city.
I get that the young goaltender needs starts and there are more of those in the AHL, but he’s too good. Saros dominated the Dallas Stars all by himself after a respectable game against the Carolina Hurricanes. He can clearly do well against NHL talent, he just needs starts. I understand that the Nashville Predators want to give Rinne the big minutes, but I’m worried how he’ll fare as the season goes on. We’ve consistently seen how too many starts can hurt goaltenders like Carey Price and Brayden Holtby in the postseason. I think it’ll affect the older Pekka Rinne even worse than those two.
Saros has proven he can handle a bigger workload, it’s time for him to come in and give Rinne a break. Just give the poor kid some consistency.
Johansen news
We all know that Johansen is the driving force behind the offense. His absence wasn’t felt on Monday, but it started to creep in on Tuesday and will be felt as the season goes on. Johansen was listed as day to day on Monday but has been moved retroactively to the injured reserve, with that date being Monday.
Should we be scared that he was moved to the big bad IR? Not necessarily, this just means that Johansen can’t play until a week after his move to the IR. Since it was retroactively moved to Monday, we could see him as early as next Wednesday.
News!
The news today isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s not as bad as it could be. Hopefully, we see Saros and Johansen back soon as they are important players to the Nashville Predators. Although their values may differ just a bit.