While the Hurricanes acknowledged the bad news about Jeff Skinner and Joni Pitkanen on Wednesday -- both are out indefinitely with what have finally been confirmed are concussions -- Jay Harrison couldn’t have been happier to be back on the ice.

He has missed 10 games and three weeks -- the entire Kirk Muller Era -- with an “upper body” injury that has now been revealed as a concussion of his own. While the team muddled its way across Canada, Harrison was at home, recovering. Wednesday, he was cleared to practice with the team, one of 10 skaters to take part in a small-scale practice.

“You spend as much time with these guys as you do with your family,” Harrison said. “I definitely missed them, and I missed it, for sure.”

Canes forward Jeff Skinner and defenseman Joni Pitkanen have been diagnosed with concussions and will be sidelined indefinitely, general manager Jim Rutherford said today.

Skinner, the team's leading scorer, was evaluated Wednesday by Dr. Sandeep Gavankar at Carolina Family Practice and Sports Medicine in Cary. Skinner, 19, did not play in the Canes' last two games, against the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs.

"This is a big step back and you hate it for the players," Rutherford said. "And especially with a young player such as Jeff, at this point in his career. He's a player who plays so hard and loves the game so much."

The late version of today's column on Joni Pitkanen didn't make the website. Here it is in its entirety.

RALEIGH -- To this point in his career, you’ve had to take the good with the bad with Joni Pitkanen. His talent tantalizes, which is why he was drafted fourth overall and has been traded for significant returns twice. His inconsistency has often frustrated, which is why he has been traded twice.

The Carolina Hurricanes have only seen the good from the Finnish defenseman this season. His opening goal Wednesday helped the Hurricanes to a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins, their first of the season. More than that, Pitkanen has been the dependable, two-way defenseman the Hurricanes are paying him to be.

RALEIGH -- There hasn’t ever been a trade deadline that had the kind of implications for the future of the Carolina Hurricanes the way it did today. There was only one trade made, but its reverberations and ramifications will be felt for a long time.

The deal to acquire Bryan Allen from the Florida Panthers meant that the Hurricanes lost Brett Carson on waivers for nothing. It means that the odds of losing Joni Pitkanen for nothing this summer substantially increased. But Allen’s arrival also significantly upgraded the Carolina blue line from a defensive standpoint, and by deciding not to cash in on Pitkanen and trade him now, the Hurricanes’ chances of making the playoffs weren’t harmed, either.

The Hurricanes are in better shape to make the playoffs today than they were yesterday, but not without some collateral damage.

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."

The Canes will have defenseman Joni Pitkanen back in the lineup tonight for the Edmonton Oilers.

Pitkanen, who has been sidelined the last two games with an upper-body injury, went through the morning skate, was checked out by medical personnel and given the thumb's up. Defenseman Brett Carson, an emergency call-up from Charlotte (AHL), was to be returned to the Checkers.

The Oilers are 4-6-2 but have beaten the Chicago Blackhawks twice in their last four games, both in Chicago. Edmonton won 7-4 on Oct. 29 and then 2-1 Sunday with a third-period comeback.

Canes coach Paul Maurice said today he expects no lineup changes for Tuesday's game against the Edmonton Oilers at the RBC Center.

Maurice still is not sure if defenseman Joni Pitkanen will be able to return from an upper-body injury, calling Pitkanen's status "day-to-day." Pitkanen, who has missed the last two games, was at practice today at the RBC Center but wearing a yellow, no-contact jersey.

"Joni's healing well and getting stronger," Maurice said. "There's a possibility for tomorrow but that decision's not getting made until everybody checks off on it. It will be tomorrow."

TORONTO — Eric Staal won the gold, the most coveted prize, but his was just one of four Olympic medals won by Hurricanes.

Tim Gleason came back from Vancouver — ever so reluctantly -- with a silver medal, and Finland's Tuomo Ruutu and Joni Pitkanen won bronze medals. No one came back empty handed.

"It was really fun," Ruutu said today of his Olympic experience. "They did a great job with everything. It was one of the best times of my life.

"Obviously you shoot for the gold. But it was not bad for Finland. It's not an every-day thing and you are proud just to be a part of the team."

All four Canes went to Vancouver with the most precious medal in sports in their sights: Olympic gold.

Tim Gleason and Eric Staal still have it in their sights. Gleason and Team USA must again beat Staal and Team Canada to win gold, and they will again have to do it in rollicking Canada Hockey Place.

"People ask me who I'm cheering for and I'm cheering for Staal and Gleason," Canes coach Paul Maurice said today. "You can't pick one man over the other because they're both such great guys. I almost feel bad because one is getting a silver."