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The start to the season for the Nashville Predators has gone from bad to worse. In addition to losing their first two games they have also lost one of their top defenseman in Roman Josi.

Josi was on the receiving end of a huge hit from Colorado's Steve Downie on Saturday night and according to the team (via Joshua Cooper), Josi suffered a concussion.

The Predators weren't happy with the hit in the moment, attacking Downie after the play. They continued to take umbrage with the hit even after the game as Cooper reported.

"I take issue with that," Predators forward Paul Gaustad said. "He's one of those players who looks for the crowd to cheer him on or something like that. I don't know ... it was a dumb hit and we know who did it. We play these guys several times this year."

Midway through the second period, Downie left his feet and led with his hands toward Josi's head and neck in the Predators defensive zone. Josi was knocked down and appeared dazed, but he left the ice under his own power. Defenseman Shea Weber and forward Gabriel Bourque immediately jumped on Downie for retribution.

"I haven’t seen a replay yet. It looks like he left his feet on the ice, but [I] have to watch it," Weber said.

For the record, the teams meet again on Nov. 6 in Denver.

Whether it was a bad hit or not, that's up for the league to decide. In the meantime the actuality is that Josi, who had a very strong season for Nashville a year ago, is going to miss some time. In the meantime, it could lead to a pairing of Shea Weber with Seth Jones, or perhaps Ryan Ellis. Somebody will have to step up and play alongside Weber, an enviable task.

The Swiss defenseman played all 48 games last season for Nashville, putting up five goals and 13 assists while averaging 23:32 of ice time per game, doing his part to fill the hole left by Ryan Suter's departure in free agency.

Concussions are always scary but making this one even scarier? It's reportedly the fifth concussion Josi has suffered since 2009.