Brace yourself, this is about as bad as news you can get if you're a Nashville Predators fan just a day before the 2024-25 season opener against the Nashville Predators. Juuse Saros is dealing with a lower-body injury that has him day-to-day.
According to a report from Robby Stanley of 102.5 The Game, Saros has been designated as day-to-day ahead of the season-opener against the Dallas Stars on Thursday and it's unclear if he'll be able to suit up and get the start.
Juuse Saros is day-to-day with a lower body injury. Uncertain whether or not he’ll be available tomorrow.
— Robby Stanley (@RStanleyNHL) October 9, 2024
Predators have to operate with a lot of caution and not make Saros' injury worse
This has prompted a call-up to goaltender Matthew Murray from the Milwaukee Admirals, indicating there is serious concern that Saros will be available to play at all, even in an emergency status as backup to Scott Wedgewood.
Speaking of Wedgewood, his preseason in three appearances has been anything but stellar. It's been atrocious, no way to sugarcoat it with save percentages all in the 70's in each game.
Despite the ugly preseason slate, I wrote earlier this week that my concern level is still low and have optimism he'll at least be serviceable when Saros needs a break. Of course with the benefit of hindsight, I'd much rather have Kevin Lankinen ready to suit up for Thursday with Saros being questionable.
I guess we can hope that Wedgewood got it out of his system and is ready for much better gameplay for the games that count, because it's looking highly likely he's going to get the start on Thursday against his former team from last season who decides to let him go in free agency.
Murray is likely being called up as the emergency backup, and I'm not throwing out the possibility at all that Wedgewood gets pulled and Murray gets thrown in. If it comes to that, then Predators are almost certainly opening the 2024-25 season with a loss unless they can keep up on the scoreboard.
Saros has for the most part been a healthy and readily available goalie throughout his career, with the big exception to when he got injured right at the end of the 2021-22 season and foreced him to miss the first round series against the Colorado Avalanche, which ended up in a sweep.
Over the last three seasons, Saros has been the true workhorse for Predators with 60-plus starts. Unless he's forced to miss due to injuries, Saros is probably heading for another 60-plus start campaign this season.
That 2021-22 regular season saw Saros rack up 67 starts with a sizzling .918 save percentage. The Predators are much improved team on paper, with deeper scoring, than that 2021-22 who were top-heavy with Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene and Roman Josi primarily carrying the offense.
On the bright side, this doesn't seem to be an injury that will linger deep into the regular season. It's possible that the Predators want to operate with an abundance of caution, and I'm fully in agreement with that. Last thing you want to do is rush your ailing franchise goalie in Game 1 of an 82-game regular season and make it worse.
Saros already has taken a maintenance day from practice with the season-opener just over 24 hours away. Play it safe if he's not 100 percent healthy, and just keep your fingers crossed that Wedgewood can be at least good enough to allow the Predators to hang on the scoreboard with the revamped offense.