The Anaheim Ducks were happy to be in first place in the Western Conference at the end of Thursday night, but it didn't come without a price before the puck even dropped.
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Captain Ryan Getzlaf was a late scratch as the Ducks (34-12-6, 74 points) defeated the Predators (33-12-6, 72 points) to climb to the top of the Western Conference standings.
Prior to the game, the team announced that Getzlaf was a late scratch with a lower-body injury heading into one of the biggest games of the season.
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Getzlaf was dealing with a lower-body injury and he aggravated it in warm-ups, eventually leading to just the second time he sat out a game this season.
"It's a lower-body injury," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said via NHL.com. "That's all I'm saying right now. It's day-to-day, and we'll probably know more before we hit Tampa [Bay on Feb. 8] anyway. I don't even know if he can play [Friday against the Washington Capitals], but he's coming to Washington with us."
Getzlaf is a very important piece in the Ducks system as he leads the team with 52 points and has 16 goals while he ranks tied for third in the entire NHL with 36 assists.
"We learned after warm-up," Boudreau said. "[Head athletic trainer] Joe Huff came in with about three minutes to go in warm-ups and said '[Getzlaf's] not feeling well.' I said 'OK, how bad is it?' He said 'No, he doesn't know yet.' He wasn't off the ice. He came off, and we had to wait to put the lineup card in until about seven minutes to go."
Anaheim broke out to a 4-0 lead through two periods against Nashville, aided by two goals from Jakob Silfverberg, and hung on to win as Frederik Andersen made 44 saves on 46 shots and tied Pekka Rinne for the NHL lead with 29 wins.
It remains to be seen how long Getzlaf will be out, but the red-hot Ducks continue their five-game road trip without their captain after starting it off with a big win on Thursday.
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