During last night’s 4-3 shootout defeat to Pittsburgh, Ranger defenseman Fedor Tyutin left the contest with an injury. Today, it was learned that the 23 year-old Russian suffered a sprained ligament in his left knee and will miss three to four weeks.

Already with dim hopes of making the postseason, this doesn’t help. In his second full NHL season, Tyutin had two goals, 12 assists for 14 points in appearing in all 64 games. He ranked second to forward Ryan Hollweg with 146 hits, which paces the blueline.

Though he’s been up and down this season, lately, the former 2001 second round draft pick had been playing better since teaming up with rookie defenseman Daniel Girardi. The two worked well together and was arguably the club’s most consistent pairing the past month. Now the club will most likely insert Thomas Pock into the lineup and be forced to recall someone from Hartford. Could Ivan Baranka get the call? We’ll see.