I heard today from a long-time contact in Oulu, Finland regarding Flyers' defenseman Lasse Kukkonen. Apparently, Kukkonen has been dealing with a nagging foot problem that has been hampering him for a little while now.

This seems to confirm that an injury, along with a corresponding slide in his play, has contributed to Kukkonen being moved from an every-game starter to a scratch in three of the last seven games.

However, with the acquisition of Jim Vandermeer, I would have to think that Kukkonen has at least temporarily been relegated to the role of seventh defenseman, assuming Hatcher (knee), Timonen (back) and Smith (back) are all able to play.

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