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Report: Pekka Rinne Hip Infection To Keep Him Out 6-8 Weeks

Well, this isn’t exactly the sort of news that Nashville Predators fans were looking for this evening:


Pekka Rinne

#35 / Goalie / Nashville Predators

6-5

204

Nov 03, 1982



GP MIN W L OTL GA GAA SA SV SV% SO
2013 – Pekka Rinne 9 493 4 4 1 19 2.31 229 210 .917 0


Rinne just had a procedure done two weeks ago to have a hip infection flushed out, and some informed analysis from Jo Innes at Backhand Shelf raised our hopes that perhaps he’d be back in action relatively shortly:

The infection could have been from contamination that was introduced during surgery but had been sneakily hiding out until now. It’s also possible an infection elsewhere in his body seeded his hip joint via the bloodstream, but that’s very unlikely – Pekka Rinne is a healthy guy who’s probably not walking around with a bloodstream full of bacteria.

The upside to this very rare complication is that irrigation of infected joints followed by IV antibiotics works very, very well. There’s no reason to expect Rinne should be out longer than the anticipated four to six weeks.

If this latest report is accurate (and it’s also being reported separately by ESPN), we’re looking at roughly 25 more games the Preds will have to get by without their franchise goaltender. If you believe that individual goaltending has any significance to a team’s success, this has to be considered a tough blow to Nashville.

Carter Hutton has fared pretty well in Pekka’s absence, but there have been a number of times when juicy rebounds have made fans appreciate all the more Rinne’s ability to slow down the pace of the game by freezing pucks after most enemy shots.


Carter Hutton

#30 / Goalie / Nashville Predators

6-1

195

Dec 19, 1985



GP MIN W L OTL GA GAA SA SV SV% SO
2013 – Carter Hutton 6 348 3 1 1 16 2.76 186 170 .914 0


Heading into tomorrow night’s game at Colorado, the Predators earlier today swapped out backup goalies behind Hutton, sending Magnus Hellberg to Milwaukee and calling up Marek Mazanec.

More from On the Forecheck:

Should David Poile acquire a veteran goaltender instead of riding with Hutton/Hellberg/Mazanec?

No 129
Yes 155