from Josh Cooper of The Tennessean,

So has anything changed in the last 24 hours? Not in the slightest. I saw Rinne walking around the locker room without crutches two days ago. His being allowed to start more strenuous rehab activities, as the Predators revealed Friday on their website, is a good sign but not a game-changer.

While Rinne’s injury has indeed torpedoed the season — the Predators are a mediocre 19-20-6 going into today’s game against Ottawa at Bridgestone Arena — you have to wonder how his absence has been handled.

The Predators are a team built on defense and goaltending. In many ways, they are built almost solely on two players — defenseman Shea Weber and Rinne. If one goes down, there’s not much backup to keep the team afloat.

The Predators have harped that there is no timetable for Rinne’s recovery from this injury, but they still decided to go with the unproven goaltending tandem of Carter Hutton and Marek Mazanec.

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