The Nashville Predators have been bitten by the injury bug yet again.
The team announced on March 19 that defenseman Jeremy Lauzon is week-to-week with a lower-body injury, making him the latest in a series of casualties on Nashville's blue line.
The Predators will miss having Lauzon's physicality in the lineup. He has skated in every one of Nashville's 68 games, and he's already set a new franchise record for hits in a single season (321). Now at 327, he is just 56 hits away from breaking Matt Martin’s single-season NHL record; however, his week-to-week status makes it less likely that he will be able to hit the mark this season.
Lauzon's injury is a tough blow to the Predators, who have also lost defensemen Dante Fabbro (2-3 weeks, upper-body) and Spencer Stastney (week-to-week, upper-body) to injuries within the last week. Fabbro's injury prompted the Predators to recall Stastney from the American Hockey League's Milwaukee Admirals on March 12, but Stastney took a big hit in the third period of Nashville's March 13 win over the Winnipeg Jets — his first game after being called up — and landed on the injury list himself.
Stastney's injury saw Tyson Barrie , who had been a regular healthy scratch as the team's extra defenseman, return to the lineup for the Predators' 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on March 16. The news of Lauzon's injury now qualifies Marc Del Gaizo's call-up on March 18 as an emergency recall , meaning it does not count against Nashville's four regular recalls allowed after the trade deadline under the NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement.
"We're really fortunate to have a deep defense corps," Brunette said. "We've got some players that have been outstanding for Milwaukee. [Injuries] are going to happen through the course of the year. To me, that's an opportunity... to come into our group and help pull the rope here a little bit — dig in, anchor in [because] we're going to need you."
The loss of Lauzon means Del Gaizo will definitely be in the lineup for the Predators' March 19 home game against the San Jose Sharks. Where exactly he will be in the lineup, though, remains unclear.
It's possible that Del Gaizo could be a one-for-one replacement for Lauzon on the second pairing with Alexandre Carrier, but the Predators' practice rushes at morning skate featured virtually every possible combination of defensive partners. It could be that head coach Andrew Brunette and his staff are still undecided, but knowing his hesitation to tamper too much with the lineup amid the Predators' 14-game point streak , it's likely that the Predators' back end could look something like this against San Jose:
McDonagh - Josi
Carrier - Del Gaizo
Barrie - Schenn
The exact combinations will be confirmed during warm-ups before puck drop against San Jose. The Predators enter the contest just one game shy of tying the franchise record for consecutive games with at least one point earned.
Local News
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