The Nashville Predators are facing the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday without Matt Cullen and Viktor Stalberg, who are dealing with upper-body injuries. Such a predicament forced the Preds to dress seven defensemen tonight.
Both forwards have had their ups and downs in their first seasons with Nashville.
Cullen, 37, integrated into the lineup pretty well at first, but faced recent struggles. He only managed to collect points in one of 10 games to begin January (two assists on Jan. 9), but showed some life lately, with three points in the last two contests. Overall, Cullen has 22 points in 53 contests.
Stalberg, 28, has probably been a bigger disappointment to some who imagined what a player who scored 22 goals as a bit player with Chicago could do with a more heightened role. Instead, he’s been inconsistent, with just 15 points in 47 games. (He had 23 in the same amount of contests with the Blackhawks last season.)
The Tennessean’s Joshua Cooper turns the knife a little deeper on the team’s unsuccessful free agent bids as they face Matt Hendricks and the Oilers tonight:Eric Nystrom is the only #preds free agent forward signing in Nashville’s lineup tonight...
— JoshuaCooper (@JoshuaCooper) January 27, 2014Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins