Jarred Smithson’s injury gives J-P Dumont a chance of playing as Nashville Predators looks to avoid elimination
Nashville Predators is not only one game away from crashing out of the playoffs but also faces the problem of injured players continuously. Jarred Smithson is now out with an injury which in turn gives an opportunity to J.P Dumont to play in the series.
The third game of the series proved to strike Predators very badly as it saw Nashville’s veteran and star player, Steve Sullivan, sustaining a lower body injury. The injury isn’t that severe but still he is expected to miss this series.
Predators now face another problem of Jarred Smithson being injured in Game 4 of the series. He was an important part of Predators’ line-up as he scored an overtime goal against Anaheim Ducks in Game 5. He was also scored the winning overtime goal in Game
2 against Vancouver Canucks.
"I think it's 'all hands on deck", Trotz said after the loss. "We have some special people. I think we have three special people (goalie Pekka Rinne and defensemen Shea Weber and Ryan Suter), and then we've got some complementary players that are good players.
We might have to do it from the back end a little bit more. It might be Pekka doing what he did in Vancouver (in Game 2) again. I look at the task and everybody's saying it's three (wins)".
Now, the question that arises is that if Smithson can’t play then who will? The option that is left for Predators’ coach is his last forward, J-P Dumont.
Dumont was given ample amount of time and games to settle in the team.
He played 70 games during the course of the regular season but was unable to come up with anything extraordinary as he scored only 10 goals.
The thing that has still kept Predators in the running for making it to the Finals is the fact that they have kept a tight checking combination.
The main checking abilities were coming from Smithson and with him out of the team, things might get tough as Canucks is currently leading the series, 3-1.
However, Predators has no other option and it has to utilise the available sources.
If it wins then it would be a step closer to a comeback and if it doesn’t then Canucks will make it to the Conference Finals for the first time in 17 years.
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