A sprained knee, out through the All-Star break. That change in air pressure you felt this morning was the collective breath being let out of Pred Nation after holding it since about 9pm Tuesday night. You hate to call the timing of something like this good… losing one of the best players in the game this season for any amount of time is bad, but the timing of this injury allows Rinne to only miss the three games before the all-star break, giving the All-Star goaltender a full two weeks to recover… and only missing three games in that two week span. If this happened in February, Rinne would miss 8 games in the same span of time.
UPDATE - Looks like 3 - 5 weeks according to Pekka's doctor.
So once again, the Nashville Predators take the ice with someone other than Pekka Rinne in net, and before you go chalking these next three games up as losses… keep this in mind. Carter Hutton is a serviceable backup for the Predators. Would you want to go into the season with him as your number one? Maybe not, but once the net became truly his last season, After the rotation of goaltenders and the acquisition of Devan Dudnyk, Hutton stepped up his game.
So, Washington at home, then Detroit and Montreal on the road before the all-star break… strap in Pred fans… this should be interesting. Tomorrow night’s game is a sell-out, there have been some standing room tickets, but even they have been hard to come by.
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Random Notes
- Marek Mazanec is 4-0-2 in his last six AHL starts. Wonder if her gets a start either tomorrow or Saturday on the back-to-back?
- Ryan Suter was given two games for his elbow on Steve Downie. If it was anyone else than Downie… I bet he would’ve gotten more.
- Don’t forget the school supply drive at Bridgestone Arena tomorrow night before Preds/Caps.
- Jaroslav Halak and Marc-Andre Fluery will be the replacements for Detroit’s Jimmy Howard and Pekka Rinne in next weekend’s All-Star Game.
- Well… they traded for him, they’re gonna start him. Devan Dubnyk is between the pipes for tonight’s Wild tilt against Buffalo.
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