Lower-body injury sidelines Sullivan for Game 4

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Predators coach Barry Trotz said veteran wing Steve Sullivan will sit out Game 4 of Nashville's Western Conference Semifinals series with Vancouver with a lower-body injury.

Sullivan got tangled up with a Vancouver player and hobbled off the ice to the locker room with 3:10 left in regulation on Tuesday in Game 3 and did not return.

The 36-year-old only played 44 games this season because of injury and only one regular season game after Feb. 24. He has 2 goals in the playoffs while playing in all nine postseason games for Nashville thus far, but his ice time has been limited and he has mostly played a fourth-line role.

Trotz said he has two options to replace Sullivan: veteran J-P Dumont and 21-year-old Colin Wilson. Wilson played in all 82 regular-season games but has been a healthy scratch in the playoffs.

Wilson participated in warm-ups on Tuesday and Trotz said he was close to putting him in the lineup.

"Yeah, Willie's ready," Trotz said. "I was really thinking about putting him in last night. I told him to get ready. It would be a warm-up decision. I feel he's ready for the postseason. He's a young guy, talented. He's a big body. His play at the end of the year wasn't where I wanted it to be. And no one allowed him to get into that first series because everyone played well.

"He had a tough time dealing with that. He's over that, but he realizes that, 'Hey, I can now contribute and I get it and have to be a pro about it.' It's part of his process of being a really good pro."

Dumont, 33, was often a healthy scratch at the end of the regular season but played in Games 5 and 6 of the first round after Martin Erat went out with an upper-body injury. Dumont made a big play to earn an assist in Nashville's decisive Game 6 victory but also took a penalty and was benched, finishing with only 5:37 of time on ice. He has 17 goals in 50 career playoff games.