Penguins get unfortunate injury update on Rickard Rakell

The Penguins hit a double whammy on Saturday. They had their 4 game winning streak come to an end after being defeated by the Columbus Blue Jackets in a shootout 5-4 and they lost star forward Rickard Rakell to injury.

The Penguins announced early Sunday that Rakell had surgery on his left hand after blocking a shot in Saturday's loss, and that he would miss 6-8 weeks following said surgery. That is a major blow to the Penguins with where Rakell plays in the top six and on the powerplay on a nightly basis.

Losing a player like Rakell is never easy to replace, but with the Penguins corresponding roster move for Rakell's injury, they might just be okay. The Penguins decided to recall forward Ville Koivunen from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins to replace Rakell for the time being.

Recalling Koivunen seemed like the logical roster move. Koivunen started the season with the Penguins and actually played on the top line but got sent back to Wilkes-Barre after a few games.

Koivunen actually did not stand out much in his few games with the Penguins to begin the season. He did not seem like the same player that Penguins fans were used to when he got an end-of-season callup last year.

But ever since he went back to Wilkes-Barre, he had been tearing it up tallying 4 goals and 7 assists in 6 games with the AHL club. He had been sent down to find his game again since he was not doing much in Pittsburgh, and he did more than enough.

And now Koivunen seems to be back for the long-term as Rakell will be out for quite some time. And this is Koivunen's chance to prove to the team that he belongs in Pittsburgh for the rest of the season. It remains to be determined if he will remain with the big club for the rest of the year, but now is his chance.