The Nashville Predators face significant uncertainty about the health of franchise cornerstones Pekka Rinne (hip infection) and Shea Weber (eye injury). They know that Weber won’t play on Thursday and could also know a lot more about Rinne’s situation, as the Tennessean reports that the goalie’s MRI is coming up tomorrow.
Back in early November, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reported that Rinne, 31, would probably be back around Dec. 25. Tomorrow’s results might clarify if that estimate was accurate or not.
The Predators originally went with Carter Hutton in net, but Marek Mazanec snared the temporary starting job, playing well enough to earn rookie of the month honors in November.
His record might be mediocre at 5-5-1, but his .930 save percentage argues that it hasn’t been because of poor goaltending. Even so, the Czech goalie is largely unproven, so Nashville would prefer to have its $7 million netminder in action.
Weber, 28, will miss his third game in a row as the Predators face the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Nashville has dropped three games in a row, leaving the Predators’ record at 13-12-3.