Steven Stamkos is the latest of many injuries that are wrecking any hopes that the Nashville Predators have to rebound in the second half of the season.
Stamkos, who hasn't been able to carry over his Hall of Fame success on offense from Tampa to Nashville, is currently listed as day-to-day and sat out practice on Thursday while the Predators have a three-day break between games. Their next game is Saturday against the Washington Capitals.
It took a while, and quiete frankly way too long, for the Predators to settle on a top line. They quickly abandoned last year's top line of Gustav Nyquist, Ryan O'Reilly and Filip Forsberg and has since turned to Stamkos as the top line center. There have been some encouraging results, most notably with Jonathan Marchessault showing a noticeable trend back to where he was expected to be.
Stamkos is hopefully short-term, but Evangelista to miss significant time
There is some hope that Stamkos will be fine and they're just holding him out of practice to rest and not further complicate whatever particular injury that forced him out of the last game, a loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
Stamkos has played in all 41 games of the season up tot his point, logging 12 goals and 13 assists. Everyone pretty much seems to agree that he should remain on the top line as the center with Forsberg and Marchessault.
The Predators have had poor luck on the injury front over the last couple of weeks. Cole Smith, an important bottom-six depth player and penalty killer, has been on injured reserve dating back to his last game on December 21.
Jeremy Lauzon and Adam Wilsby are both on injured reserve for the defense, but luckily Spencer Stastney has returned and Nick Blankenburg has done a good job filling in and bringing some extra offense.
The more alarming injury is to Luke Evangelista. He is projected to miss the next four weeks, per Robby Stanley of 102.5 The Game.
Evangelista, like many of the Predators players, is suffering to tally up the goals due to a low shooting percentage and the inability to just finish on scoring chances. The Predators are the worst finishing team in the NHL by most metrics.
This will put a damper on Evangelista's second full season in the NHL. He has 14 points in 39 games, but only four of those being goals and a 5.3 shooting percentage. Missing a month isn't going to help matters for getting him into a groove.
The Predators have had to lean heavily on calling up prospects from the Milwaukee Admirals, and it looks like that trend will continue. Expect Vinnie Hinostroza and Fedor Svechkov to stick around for a while, and don't be surprised if another call-up happens soon. Maybe Joakim Kemell's NHL debut is on the horizon?
With a season that's almost certainly lost for the playoffs, seeing the future prospects get heavy playing time might not actually be a bad thing to see if someone can really blossom.
Evangelista is due to be a restricted free agent and move on from his entry level contract, and you would think that the Predators have every intention of giving him his first NHL contract soon.