Things have been going horribly for the Carolina Hurricanes lately and this injury to Joni Pitkanen is just going to add to their problems. They are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games and are currently 10th in the Eastern Conference. Pitkanen was racing with Washington Capitals forward Troy Brouwer for the puck when he went into boards awkwardly with just under two minutes left in the second period. It doesn’t look like Brouwer touched Pitkanen or pushed him in some way to cause the collision with the boards, it was merely bad luck. It appeared he suffered an apparent leg injury.
This right here is your No. 1 argument for hybrid icing. Hybrid icing has been used in various levels such as the USHL, NCAA and AHL, and it’s about time the NHL makes the switch. For those of you that don’t know, hybrid icing is when the player has to race to the dot in the defensive zone, rather than race to the puck. They don’t have to touch the dot, they just have to be the first one to that part of the ice. This makes it so the race is further away from the boards and there are far fewer dangerous collisions.
Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Kurtis Foster, who broke his leg in 2008 on a similar play, had some thoughts to share with Minnesota Wild beat writer Michael Russo on the incident:
The Hurricanes couldn’t rally around their fallen teammate and went on to lose the game 5-3.
UPDATE:
