Pitkanen Sidelined

Word out of the Hurricanes camp is that defenseman Joni Pitkanen has been put on the shelf, due to a lower-body injury, speculated to be a foot injury.  Pitkanen will miss Saturday night's contest against the Penguins and will be considered day-to-day, although he may be expected to be out of the line-up for about a week.

The Hurricanes are reeling in the Eastern Conference standings at the moment and missing one of their top defensemen will not help their cause much, especially since he is generally in their top pairing each night.

Pitkanen has had a pretty good start to the 2012 season, scoring 3 goals and 5 assists in 16 games for the club, scoring at half a point-per-game, which is about where you would want to see your defenseman at.  Going into Saturday's action, he was unofficially ranked 184th in pool scoring, 25th among defensemen.

In the pool, he has certainly helped out the pool leader, Wayne H., who has benefited from an average defense corps in the draft this year.  Pitkanen joins Visnovsky on the shelf for the time being on Wayne's side, but thankfully for Wayne, his money-making players are his goalies and forwards.