Adam Vingan

USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee

The Predators’ locker room is starting to resemble an infirmary.

Already playing Thursday’s 2-1 win against the Bruins without forwards James Neal (upper-body injury) and Colin Wilson (lower-body injury) as well as defenseman P.K. Subban (upper-body injury/suspected herniated disc), the Predators lost defenseman Roman Josi to an upper-body injury late in the first period.

Bruins forward Anton Blidh delivered a high hit to Josi in the corner of the Predators' defensive zone, receiving a five-minute major penalty for interference.

"I thought it was late and dirty," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said.

If Josi, who has appeared in all 42 of Nashville's games, is lost for any significant amount of time, then the Predators will be without their top two defensemen. He and Subban each average more than 25 minutes of ice time and have combined for 39 points.

"He's a No. 1 guy, obviously playing 26, 27 (minutes), even more than that every game, so it's a big loss for us having him and P.K. out," Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. "But I thought we managed it really well tonight. We had guys stepping up, playing big minutes."

Ekholm led Predators defensemen in ice time at 29:11, nine seconds short of his single-game career high.

"I don't know if (Josi's) back next game or how long it is," Ekholm said. "If he's not, then we'll manage that. I think we've got guys that can come up and step up, and we saw it tonight."

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