Preds’ Hornqvist (knee) out 3-4 weeks

The Nashville Predators were already struggling to find the net in this early season, and now they’ll need to cope without one of their best scorers.

Patric Hornqvist will miss three-to-four weeks with a sprained knee, according to the team.

The 26-year-old winger has only scored one goal despite firing 16 shots on goal through five games, yet he also collected three assists to make for a productive start. He’s been involved in four of Nashville’s paltry 10 tallies so far this season, so it’s easy to see where he’ll be missed.

The team has limped into the post-Ryan Suter era* so far, going 1-1-3 for five points in 10 games. They’ll face a Phoenix Coyotes team starting unproven netminder Chad Johnson (not Ochocinco) on Monday, so perhaps they won’t miss Hornqvist as much tonight.

Then again, the game is against the Coyotes, so scoring might not be so easy, anyway.

* Also gone: Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn.