The Nashville Predators will be without defenseman P.K. Subban for at least the next two games.
Subban was unable to skate Wednesday due to an upper-body injury that's sidelined him for the past five games, and he'll therefore miss Thursday's home game against Chicago and Friday's date in St. Louis.
Nashville's next game after that is Jan. 3 at home to Montreal, one that has been circled on the calendar since this past summer's Shea Weber trade.
Speaking to 102.5 FM in Nashville on Tuesday, general manager David Poile neither confirmed nor denied a report from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman that Subban is dealing with a herniated disc.
"We do everything we can to protect the player," Poile said, per NHL.com. "I say almost every team just announces their injuries as either an upper- or lower-body injury. That's because when a player comes back, he's not always 100 percent, and if you knew exactly what was wrong with the player, a player on another team might go after that body part to see if they could re-injure it."
Poile added Subban was scheduled to meet with doctors Tuesday to evaluate the situation.
Subban has not played since Dec. 15 after recording seven goals and 10 assists in his first 29 games with the Predators.
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