if pitkanen is a bit worse in his own end, well see how he is with the extra year of nhl experience. jbo is in his 3rd season, joni is in his second.
and philly's defense has been pretty much awful this year due to injuries, and incosistancey. so far this year philly has used on D pitkanen, desjardins,hatcher,rathje,johnnson, therien, meyer, jones, skolney, picard, seidenberg, gauthier. and donald brashear( he practiced as a d man, dont rememebr if he played a game after)
out of these d men pitkanen desjardins, hatcher, rathje, therien, johnnson, meyer, and seidenberg(while he was on philly) went through injuries this year. gauthier might of on PHX.
they defenseive pairings have all been shifted around so much that they never get the same partners. familarity with your partner is an important part of playing defense because you have to know how they play. pitkanen has been playing great altely paired with rathje who has a torn laburum(something like that) in his hip. grade A partner right there. id take sean hill over an injured rathje any day.