Nashville Predators: Five Storylines Heading into 2023 All Star Break

How Long Will Predators be Without Carrier?

These week-to-week injury timetables always scare me because you really never know just how long it’s going to be. All you know is upper-body injury and you get the four to six weeks.

Best case scenario if Carrier returns at the four-week mark, he’ll be back right around when that trade deadline is almost here. Will the Predators be able to continue their climb up the standings without Carrier in the lineup, or will they hit another losing streak and fall back to that six to eight point gap out of the playoff picture?

Kevin Gravel filled in for Carrier against the Devils in the first game missed. Gravel played the part well as a third-pairing defenseman and even managed four shots on goal.

With time off for the All-Star Break, expect Hynes and his staff to reevaluate if they’re going to stick with Gravel in place of Carrier or go another route.

The Predators have been up and down on the defensive front. At times they look impenetrable and harass puck handlers with their forecheck. Other times, and we saw it a couple times against New Jersey, they get diced up and Saros has to win these odd man rushes.

The Predators also lose some offensive punch from their defensive corps without Carrier. That stings.

Carrier stepped up from a hit on Glass in the game against Winnipeg earlier this week, took a fight against the much larger Logan Stanley, and the outcome was rather predictable and not pretty.

Here’s my recap of my top five storylines heading into the 2023 NHL All-Star Break for the Nashville Predators.

1. Is the Offense Finally Clicking?

2. Can Glass and Parssinen Continue their Ascension?

3. Can Saros Avoid a Bad Stretch of Hockey?

4. How Will the Preds Approach the Trade Deadline?

5. How Much Time Will Carrier Actually Miss?