It was reported yesterday by The Tennessean’s Bryan Mullen – and then this morning by Joshua Cooper – but the Nashville Predators have yet to officially recall goaltender Mark Dekanich from the AHL-affiliate Milwaukee Admirals.
Even though he’s taking part in Preds practice today.
Don’t read too much into this as Head Coach Barry Trotz told the media after the season opener that Pekka Rinne‘s injury was “nothing major.” He further indicated that a goaltender may get recalled early this week as a precaution.
Well it’s early in the week and here we are.
Rinne was hurt in the third period Saturday night when Anaheim forward Troy Bodie crashed the net on a partial breakaway. Preds defenseman Francis Bouillon, doing his job, didn’t help matters by further pushing Bodie onto a fallen Rinne. The replay had shows that Rinne’s right leg was caught under him when both players barrelled into him.
That kind of injury can put guys out for weeks at a time but Nashville insists the injury is nothing to be concerned with.
Coming into training camp, we raised the question (quite often) what would happen in net were Rinne to go down with any kind of injury? Was Nashville truly confident in their back-up goaltender situation knowing that Anders Lindback and Dekanich had never seen a single minute of NHL action. Even from the bench.
We never imagined we’d need to ask that question so soon.
With a little over 17:00 left in the game, a hurting Rinne pulled himself from the game. Lindback made his NHL debut, stopping all seven shots he faced.
Lindback will make his first career NHL start when the Preds visit the home of the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Barring a miracle, Dekanich will pull back-up duty while Rinne sits out.
On a related note, the official Predators insider Twitter account has said that Sergei Kostitsyn, Martin Erat, Rinne and Jamie Lundmark will not make the trip to Chicago due to injuries.
Looks like Wade Belak will see game action on Wednesday for one of the few times this season.