Joni Pitkanen has been a defensive stalwart for the Hurricanes this season averaging nearly 25 minutes per game. Photo by Mike Hurst.
Oct 14, 2009
When the Carolina Hurricanes host the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night, they will be without the services of defenseman Joni Pitkanen.
Pitkanen, who is still nursing a sore knee after having surgery, did not skate Tuesday morning during the team's practice, and was ruled out of tomorrow night's game by head coach Paul Maurice.
"He’s still in some pain – we have to wait until he feels better," Maurice said. "He’s skating on his own, but he hasn’t come in yet and felt a marked improvement – we’ll wait until that happens. I don’t expect him tomorrow.”
"It’s been tested out – we know what it is," Maurice continued, "it’s just a matter of him feeling strong enough and pain free enough to play. There's always a window on these injuries, a short and longer-term, and it’s taken longer than he would like or we would like, but we expect it to improve."
Maurice also said that despite his missing practice Tuesday, Eric Staal is expected to play against the Pens.
"Bad attitude," Maurice joked. "No - we just want to make sure he feels 100%. He plays so much for us - he was a little tight in practice yesterday, so we figured we'd give him another day and he'll be ready to go. We expect him to play."
For $3.5 million, he should suck it up! Last few games it was tightness from the cold, now it hurts? Looks like we got a wimp on the payroll! All my negative feelings are slowly coming back.- Posted by vance203
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