Rinne's Hip To Be Scoped

The Nashville Predators announced on Thursday morning that Pekka Rinne will now be out of action for about four weeks, thanks to a  bacterial infection in his surgically repaired hip.  Rinne hasn't exactly been his dominant self to start the year and there was some concern about his hip and a visit with the team doctors on Thursday confirmed most of those fears.

Rinne has played in nine games so far this season and has only picked up 4 wins for 8 pool points this year, which, as of Thursday morning, had him ranked 84th in pool scoring.  Definitely what you would consider a slow start for the big Finnish backstop.

The Predators will now be moving forward with the goaltending tandem of Carter Hutton and Magnus Hellberg, which no one has in the pool this year.  The Predators crease will be a black hole of points, if there are any to be had in Nashville.

The Predators star goalie was the 2nd round pick of the pool-leading duo of Kristy & Don.  Even despite his slow start, the duo has been able to make up for his numbers with some excellent numbers from their defensemen, but it wasn't like Rinne was getting nothing, so whatever production he was getting, will be missed for about a month.

After Wednesday night, Kristy & Don had a 6-point lead on 2nd place and a 7-point lead on 3rd, so they are not sitting in the safest position, losing out on a top-end goaltender.  They still have Jonathan Quick to shoulder the load in the crease, but their lead is questionable, at best, right now.