Predators battling through injuries to stay in hunt in Western Conference

NASHVILLE -- The Nashville Predators aren't interested in treading water while waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Despite injuries to key players such as forward Filip Forsberg, defenseman P.K. Subban and forward Viktor Arvidsson, the Predators (22-10-1) have won three in a row and five of their past seven (5-2-0), including a 2-1 shootout win against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday that put them back in first place in the Western Conference.
The Calgary Flames passed the Predators for the top spot in the conference Sunday with their 7-2 win against the St. Louis Blues. Nashville knows it can't afford to let up heading into a four-game trip that begins against the Ottawa Senators on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, FS-TN, NHL.TV).
"Our mindset isn't to survive these injuries," Predators center Ryan Johansen said. "We're going out there and we're trying to win every game. We go into every game expecting to win. It would be nice to get on a streak here going into the break."

In a radio interview with 102.5 The Game in Nashville on Wednesday, general manager David Poile said Subban, who has been out with an upper-body injury since Nov. 10, could return this week, which would be a nice early present before the Predators' four-day break for Christmas.
Center Kyle Turris returned Thursday after missing eight games with an undisclosed injury, but Poile said Forsberg (upper body) and Arvidsson (broken thumb) each are about three weeks away from playing.
So the Predators will have to close out 2018 without two-thirds of their top line. Although Forsberg, 24, has missed seven games since last playing Nov. 29, he continues to lead Nashville with 14 goals and is third with 22 points, behind Johansen with 26 (five goals, 21 assists) and defenseman Roman Josi with 23 (five goals, 18 assists).
The 25-year-old Arvidsson, who has been out since Nov. 10 and missed the past 17 games, is fourth on the Predators with eight goals and tied for 10th with 13 points.
Without Forsberg and Arvidsson, Johansen has been playing lately with Ryan Hartman and Kevin Fiala on his line and trying to pick up the scoring slack. He has five points (one goal, four assists) in seven games since Forsberg was injured.
"I, obviously, have to elevate my game and do a little more than normally," Johansen said. "With saying that, I think I made the mistake the first few games of trying to do too much and you just have to simplify your game a little bit more because you don't have the same chemistry as with those guys I've been playing with for basically my whole time here as a Predator. So it's just about going out there and doing the right things at both ends of the rink."
The Predators understand that it takes a team effort to continue to win without players as skilled as Forsberg, Arvidsson and Subban. They have one of the deepest defenses in the NHL, headed by Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis, so they can get by for while without Subban, who has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in 18 games this season.

Josi (25:21 per game), Ellis (24:58) and Ekholm (23:06) have been logging heavy minutes, but they've been getting help from Dan Hamhuis, who has stepped into the top four and is averaging 20:02 in ice time in Subban's absence, up from his season average of 17:24.
"It just makes our depth have to work that much harder and step up in those key moments," Ellis said. "For the most part we've had guys doing that all year and really as long as I've been here. So it just bumps guys up the lineup and we ask a little more each night from everybody involved and that's really how we drive our train when we've run into this injury bug."
The Predators had high expectations entering this season after winning the Presidents' Trophy with 117 points last season before losing to the Jets in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in seven games in the Western Conference Second Round. After that postseason disappointment, they know their season will be judged by if they win the Stanley Cup for the first time in their 20-season history.
But they also know they need to put themselves in the best possible position to have postseason success and can't afford to let these injuries sidetrack them, no matter how good the players they are missing.
"Of course, the whole first line that's been so good to us, that line is totally destroyed since [Arvidsson and Forsberg] have been out, so you're going to notice those things," goalie Pekka Rinne said. "To me Filip is one of the top forwards in the League. [They] are all big names and all important players for us and all of those players are in the leadership group and are leaders off the ice and on the ice.
"But at the same time, in this locker room there's no excuses. It's a great time for a lot of the guys to step up."
Rinne, 36, has been doing his share. Among goaltenders who have played at least 10 games, Rinne (14-5-1) ranks first in the NHL with a 1.96 goals-against average and third with a .929 save percentage. Those numbers are improved from his 2.31 GAA and .927 save percentage last season when he won the Vezina Trophy as the top goaltender in the NHL.
"He's a man on a mission," Johansen said. "He's been a man on a mission for a while now. He's been absolutely spectacular for us. I've only been here for three and a half, four years but in that time he's playing his best goaltending right now."