Jay Bouwmeester Injury: Defenseman Probably Out Against Preds Tonight

We haven't seen Jay Bouwmeester in a game since November 22nd. We probably won't be seeing him tonight against the Nashville Predators, either. Bouwmeester tweaked his groin in a freak incident:

"It was kind of weird. Someone fell down, I kind of jumped over his stick and something seized up."

Of course it's something weird. Does anyone expect anything else to snap Bouwmeester's iron man streaK

In today's Bluenotes, Jeremy Rutherford reports that chances are very good that Bouwmeester won't play tonight against the Nashville Predators, giving Chris Butler another shot to play.

"We kept him off the ice by design," Hitchcock said. "We worked him to a certain level (Tuesday). We pushed him hard. We told him when to get off. We told him he’s done. We wanted to rest him today. We’ll skate him again tomorrow and then we’ll see — we’ll see if he’s ready to go."

"If we’ve got to hold him out until the weekend, we’ll do that. But it was a designed non-compete day because we pushed him so hard yesterday. We’re not prepared to have one little bit of concern before we put him in. We don’t want this thing to be a hindrance. We’re opting to go on the safety side."

That seems pretty nebulous as to if JBo is going to play tonight. "Game-time decision" is basically "better safe than sorry."