NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Goaltender Tomas Vokoun carried Nashville to the edge of the playoffs with stellar play. Now that he's out for the season because of blood clots, the Predators must make do without him.

Vokoun won 36 of Nashville's first 41 games this season but has pelvic thrombophlebitis and will miss the final four games of the regular season and the postseason, general manager David Poile said Monday.

Not good timing for a team trying to clinch the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference.

"Let's not kid ourselves," forward Scott Walker said. "He's probably the No. 1 reason we are where we are."

That leaves the Predators starting Chris Mason, who turns 30 a day before the NHL playoffs start on April 21. His backup is Pekka Rinne, who has appeared in two NHL games. Neither has appeared in an NHL postseason game.

"It's a real good opportunity for him and our team to make a statement that, 'Hey, we're more than one player,' and I think people tend to forget about that," coach Barry Trotz said.

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The Predators already have lost a franchise-record 260 man-games to injuries this season. Losing the franchise's career leader in wins is the biggest loss yet.

Clearly their most valuable player, the 29-year-old Vokoun played in 61 of the Predators' first 74 games this season. He ranked fifth in the NHL with a record of 36-18-7. He was 9-4-2 since returning from the Olympics, where he helped the Czech Republic win bronze. He had a 2.67 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.

"We can't hide it," defenseman Kimmo Timonen said. "It's huge. Losing a player like Tomas Vokoun, who's probably one of the top three goalies in the world, you can't hide it. It's a big loss for us."

Vokoun hadn't played since April 1, when he had 35 saves in a 2-1 victory over St. Louis. The Predators had been listing Vokoun as day-to-day with a sore back.

An MRI scan on Friday found blood clots throughout his abdomen and pelvic area. Vokoun was hospitalized immediately and put on blood thinning shots and pills to reduce the life-threatening clots. Poile said a full recovery is expected.

"We feel very confident he is out of the danger zone," said team doctor Richard Garman.

Vokoun is expected to leave the hospital within the next two days. Garman said Vokoun is walking and talking in the hospital. But he will be on blood thinners for weeks and possibly months, which means hockey is out for now.

Poile said Vokoun was very disappointed and called this a tough loss for the Predators. But his teammates will press on.

"We can't all of a sudden pack our tents up and go home," Walker said. "We have a guy who's quite capable of carrying us deep into the playoffs. That's what we expect."

That will be Mason, who is 8-5-1 with a 2.80 GAA. He is coming off a shutout victory over St. Louis and a shootout win over Chicago.

He watched as Vokoun helped the Predators take Detroit to six games in their lone playoff series in 2004. Mason, who won a title with Valerengen IF Oslo during last year's lockout, said he hadn't played three straight games before this past week.

"I'm pretty confident in myself, especially with the guys here. It's just a matter of ... getting on a roll and just keep going," Mason said.