Finley out: who else?

Joe Finley’s tour of specialists wound up with the tough diagnosis: He needed surgery on his left hand to correct a “blood-flow issue,” as Scott Pellerin put it; Finley has had similar issues in the past, which cost him the bulk of his 2009-10 season.

“It’s very unlucky,” Pellerin said. The big defenseman is in the hospital until Saturday and is out indefinitely.

Beyond Finley, the defense corps is a bit banged up. Calvin de Haan didn’t practice today, and Marc Cantin gave it a shot but wasn’t on for long. They plan to see how both players are tomorrow morning. But with Andrey Pedan out for the weekend, it’d be logical to see a call-up or two, as even with those two guys they’re at six defensemen.

Looked as if Brett Gallant will be OK to go; he was with Sean Wiles and Chris Langkow. Justin Johnson again filled in on defense, but Pellerin said he expects Johnson to be up front in games, though Johnson has played back there in the past. Chris Bruton got back on the ice for the first time; he’s aiming to return at the end of November, which is pretty much the timetable we heard when he had his own hand surgery. And John Persson started skating again today as well.

Stockton is playing a 10:30 a.m. game as we type; Greg Miller and Jason Clark aren’t in the lineup yet. Brayden Irwin went back to the Thunder from Utica on Tuesday; just scored on a Sean Escobedo rebound to make it 4-0 in the second. Onetime cult hero Andy Chiodo in net for Bakersfield.

Will be writing on Kirill Kabanov (who wasn’t talking about the day he was sent down, but who had some interesting things to say on his game and his stint in Cali) for tomorrow’s paper. With Jon Sim and Johan Sundstrom today.

Tim Jackman’s 32 today, and as Ben Hankinson notes, tonight is NHL Game 400 for him.

Tomas Kundratek has a torn ACL, Tim Leone reports.

Former Penn quarterback Mark DeRosa retires young from his curious post-football career.

Awesome: The view from the new 1 WTC.

And RIP, Todd Christensen.

Michael Fornabaio