A week ago Tuesday, Jussi Jokinen was a member of the Carolina Hurricanes but wondering what the next 24 hours would bring.

The next day, Jokinen was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nor did it take long for the versatile forward to make a contribution -- in his first game, he had a goal in regulation and then the winning shootout goal Friday as the Pens beat the New York Rangers 2-1 in Pittsburgh.

Jussi Jokinen is back from Finland, back to skating with some of his Canes teammates at Raleigh Center Ice.

Jokinen has some stories to tell, too. Unlike the other guys at RCI, he's actually played some professional hockey games this season.

"Obviously this whole (NHL) situation is unfortunate," Jokinen said today. "When I was pretty sure it was going to be a lockout, I was obviously hoping it would be really quick (before it was resolved). I wanted to go somewhere and play and be as ready as I can if the league was to start. I was hoping it would start sometime in October, but that's not the case."

In 2005-06, the first year the NHL instituted the shootout to break games tied at the end of overtime, Matt Cullen led the Hurricanes to an 8-2 record in the skills competition, which helped the Hurricanes to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Since then, the Hurricanes haven't had quite as much luck. With Saturday's shootout loss to the Florida Panthers, the Hurricanes fell to 0-6 this season, surpassing the NHL record for shootout futility of 0-5, set by ... the Hurricanes in 2006-07.

Jussi Jokinen didn't want to leave. That was the main thing.

The Canes forward did want to be paid more than $1.9 million a season. He thought he was worth it, given his versatility and production. But it wasn't purely the dollar signs involved, he said.

"I probably could have gone to July 1 or July 2 and maybe there would have been some pretty big offers out there," Jokinen said today via phone from Finland. "But it's never been about the money for me. It wasn't two years ago, it wasn't this time and it won't be after three years."

Cam Ward was voted the Hurricanes' most valuable player by members of the Carolina chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, while Jussi Jokinen received the Good Guy Award for cooperation with the local media. This is the second time Ward was named team MVP by the writers; he also won the award in 2009.

Earlier, the Carolina chapter of the PHWA nominated Erik Cole for the Masterton Trophy, honoring sportsmanship, perseverance and dedication to the game of hockey. Cole was previously nominated in 2007.

The Canes' Jussi Jokinen has a number in mind: 90.

As Jokinen sees it, the Canes need 90 points to reach the playoffs this season. With 11 games left, including tonight's matchup against the New York Islanders, the math is pretty simple. To reach 90 points, the Canes need 16.

"Obviously we've had some tough losses we would have liked to cut back on, but we have 11 games left and it's still up to us," Jokinen said after today's morning skate at the RBC Center. "We probably have to go something like 8-3, maybe more, maybe less, but I don't think we can think too far ahead."

The Carolina Hurricanes reassigned forward Jon Matsumoto to the team's AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers on Tuesday.

Matsumoto had been called up on Jan. 7 and played in the Canes last two games.

With forwards Jussi Jokinen and Jiri Tlusty and most recently Ryan Carter out with injuries, Matsumoto followed Charlotte teammates Zach Boychuk and Zac Dalpe in being called up to the Hurricanes.

RALEIGH — A slapshot from Florida defenseman Bryan Allen gave the Panther a 4-3 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center tonight.

Allen scored at the 1:16 mark of the overtime period, as the Panthers gained a point on the Hurricanes and moved past the Ottawa Senators for 10th place in the Eastern Conference with 38 points. The Hurricanes are in ninth place with 41 points and were lucky to salvage a point.

Carolina was down 3-1 with under 15 minutes left in the third period but tied the game 3-3 at about the halfway point of the period.

Forward Jussi Jokinen (lower-body injury) and defenseman Joni Pitkanen (upper-body) will not play Monday against the Florida Panthers, Canes coach Paul Maurice said today.

Maurice said Jokinen and Pitkanen, who have missed the last two games, may accompany the Canes on the two-game road trip his week to New York and Florida and possibly could play. They're being listed as day-to-day.

"They're both getting better," Maurice said. "If it was in the playoffs we'd probably have them in the lineup right now. But so that we don't set anything back we're going to do everything we can to heal them to 100 percent."

ATLANTA -- It took 30 games, but the Carolina Hurricanes finally got their first look Thursday at the Atlanta Thrashers.

Turns out, it was a long look.

The Hurricanes and Thrashers went 60 minutes, then an overtime, before finally settling it in a shootout. Carolina won it 3-2, getting shootout goals from Jussi Jokinen and Sergei Samsonov.