One of the more intriguing storylines from the Nashville Predators [http://nhl.com/predators]' 2023-24 season was the mysterious injury that plagued All-Star forward Filip Forsberg [https://www.nhl.com/predators/player/filip-forsberg-8476887] from February through April. Forsberg played in all 88 of the Predators' games split between the regular season and the playoffs, but he became a regular non-participant in the team's practices and morning skates beginning in mid-February. General manager Barry Trotz had attributed Forsberg's conspicuous absence to a non-serious, yet slow-healing, injury that would get irritated every time he put on his hockey gear, but Forsberg did not divulge further details of the injury until the Predators' end-of-season media availability on Tuesday. "It was a bone bruise that cut my leg on my ankle," Forsberg said. "[It] made it kind of hard to put on skates... The second you put your foot in the boot, it was like somebody was putting a knife right back into that wound." Forsberg explained that the bruise was the result of a shot he blocked with his foot sometime in mid-February. The cut initially required stitches to heal, but the bruise underneath was the primary issue that kept him out of practice for so long. Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg speaks to the media following the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. "At that point it was just about the pain management," Forsberg said. "A bone bruise is the best way to describe it. It felt weird at one point not practicing, because I felt really normal until I put that skate on." Coincidentally, Forsberg began missing practice around the same time that the Predators embarked on their franchise-record 18-game point streak beginning Feb. 17. Forsberg scored 15 goals and 13 assists during that streak, en route to setting a new single-season franchise record with 44 goals on the year. Forsberg played through considerable pain during the second half of his record-setting season, but he gave all the credit to the Predators' training staff for making him available for games. "They did a phenomenal job keeping me ready and everything that they did," Forsberg said. "I owe them everything."
