Kevin Wilson, the hockey communications manager for the Nashville Predators, brings the grim news via Twitter:
Shea Weber is out for Wed game with a concussion sustained at Dallas. He will be evaluated on a daily basis with no timetable on his return
Feel free to commence panicking, folks.
It was fun to watch Ryan Ellis take his NHL bow last night, but Weber is one of the top players in the league, and an even greater burden will be placed upon Ryan Suter’s shoulders to soak up ice time until the captain can return. Last night, he was joined by Roman Josi on the top pair, backed up by Francis Bouillon/Jonathon Blum and Jack Hillen/Ryan Ellis. We’re still waiting to see if Kevin Klein can return to the lineup as well.
How many guys does this make this season who the Preds have lost due to hard hits/concussions? Roman Josi missed the start of the season, Martin Erat took a head shot at Columbus, Mike Fisher got caught by Anaheim’s Francois Beachemin, David Legwand got knocked silly by L.A.’s Dustin Brown… the list goes on and on.
Here’s video of the hit which came late in last Friday’s loss at Dallas. Mark Fistric wasn’t penalized on the play, nor did he receive any supplementary discipline from the NHL.
Of course, the real frustration here is something we should be used to now – we don’t know when we can expect Weber to be ready to play again. Concussions are still murky territory, and as much as we’d like to know what the timeline might be, there just isn’t one, as stated by Kevin Wilson above.