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:
As per @RealKyper Pekka Rinne has an E.Coli infection in his hip & will likely miss 6-8 weeks.
— Josh Rimer (@JoshRimerHockey) November 6, 2013
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.
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:
- Ray Emery vs Richie Incognito: Let Two Wrongs Make Some Right
- Tuesday's Dump & Chase: It's Another Off-Day!
- Nashville Predators Recall Marek Mazanec From Milwaukee, Send Magnus Hellberg Down
- Milwaukee Admirals Notebook: Ads get 3 wins to continue hot streak
- Seth Jones: Building That Calder Trophy Buzz/
Should David Poile acquire a veteran goaltender instead of riding with Hutton/Hellberg/Mazanec?
| No | 129 |
| Yes | 155 |