To add insult to a literal injury, the Nashville Predators not only lost on the scoreboard to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, but they also lost their captain Roman Josi.
Josi missed a majority of the game after not returning for the second period with a lower body injury. No other updates were released during the game other than he wouldn't return. So the mystery continues as to if he'll be ready for the Predators' next game, on the road at the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
Roman Josi is without an injury update after her left Tuesday’s game vs. Calgary with a lower-body injury and did not return.https://t.co/XNuyxmTHXZ
— Daily Faceoff - Fantasy (@DFOFantasy) December 11, 2024
It goes without stressing too much that Josi is the lifeblood of the Predators. For all of the criticism he gets for maybe not being the most outspoken captain to lead the team on the ice, his skillset is what makes the Predators tick, and it has for a while.
Now while we don't know for sure yet if Josi will miss any time at all, it's clear that if this ends up being a lengthy injury and he hits week-to-week status, this will just further push the Predators into playing the youth into more prominent roles.
Josi was one of the few bright spots, and I do mean very few, that was pushing the offense for the Predators. The team clearly missed him in the ladder stages of the Calgary game when they were pushing for the tying goal.
Marc Del Gaizo stepped into a starting role last night due to Alexandre Carrier being sidelined from a hit he took the previous game, and Jeremy Lauzon has already been out for around two weeks.
So the Predators defensive corps is already stretched thin, and if Josi missed any sort of time from this, the Predators will have to make another call-up. Spencer Stastney has gotten back to playing for the Milwaukee Admirals after missing the entire season for personal reasons.
But we can assume that Stastney isn't ready for NHL duty just yet, even though he has proven in the past he can handle the NHL workload.
It's also possible that Carrier will be back for Thursday and just needed a game off to bounce back. If both Carrier and Josi are unable to go for Dallas on Thursday then you're going to have to call up another left shot defenseman, and there's not a lot of options unless you give the highly-anticipated Tanner Molendyk his NHL debut. That would at least get the fanbase excited for something again.
Josi has 23 points (7 goals, 16 assists) in 29 games this season. He has played in 80-plus games five times in his NHL career.