Tommy Novak to Injured Reserve, Nashville Predators Depth Will Be Tested

The hits keep coming for the Nashville Predators after announcing on Tuesday that Thomas Novak, one of the team’s top point producers dating back to midway of last season, is now on Injured Reserve.

Novak is a key weapon the Predators’ power play while also centering arguably the most productive forward line with Kiefer Sherwood and Luke Evangelista.

In the most recent game, a 7-5 loss to the Arizona Coyotes, Novak logged 17:27 of ice time and tallied two assists to bring his season total to 12.

Testing the Nashville Predators Depth without Novak

This will undoubtedly test the depth of the Nashville Predators. It’s a significant blow to a team that has struggled to finish on their scoring chances, while Novak has been one of the most consistent offensive performers.

The line combinations are really going to shaken up now for their Tuesday night tilt with the Anaheim Ducks. I would expect Michael McCarron to shift back into the lineup as the fourth line center, and bump Cody Glass up to second line duties with Sherwood and Evangelista.

This also leaves a massive window of opportunity for Philip Tomasino to help fill the scoring void left behind from Novak’s absence. He’s gotten back into the starting lineup recently but is getting minimal ice time.

It’s difficult for Tomasino to really take off while getting 10 to 12 minutes of ice time, but you’re not moving Evangelista out of the top-6, and Sherwood has also earned his stripes to be on the second line as well.

With that said, Tomasino has to play his best when he’s out there. Maximizing your opportunities when you get them is what Tomasino has to focus on, and even in lowered ice time, he can be a huge difference maker in Novak’s absence in terms of providing depth scoring.

Glass missed significant time recently as well, and has been back for just one game. He logged 14 minutes of ice time against Arizona with one shot on goal and six faceoff wins.

Moving Glass up to second line duties with Evangelista and Sherwood is a great opportunity for him to get back on track and return to the trajectory we saw him going on before the season started.

Juuso Parssinen could also be shifted to the center position, which would leave a winger spot available to get Yakov Trenin back into the starting lineup. Trenin was shockingly a healthy scratch against Arizona on Saturday.

I’m not sure how the Predators are going to overcome this, however. Novak is such a vital piece to this team’s offensive makeup. It’s going to take better defensive structure, improved penalty killing and much better performances in the between the pipes to offset the potential loss in offensive production.

You might not want to hear the hard truth, but the Nashville Predators will have to start learning to win games the ugly way just like they did under John Hynes. That is unless Tomasino and Glass finally take off, and of course if Filip Forsberg and Ryan O’Reilly can continue to build on their growing chemistry then maybe these four collectively can overcome the loss of Novak.

There aren’t much details on what Novak’s injury is and how long it could last, but going to Injured Reserve means it’s probably multiple weeks and somewhat serious.