"Olli Jokinen was searching for four tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Kooza, not a chiropractor, Wednesday.

Given the Calgary Flames' dwindling resources at centre these days, the sight of the middle spoke on the Big Wheel, the No. 1 line, clutching at the small of his back during the first period of Tuesday night's 3-1 pre-season taming of the Phoenix Coyotes might've sent the brass into spasms of muted terror.

Particularly when he didn't return to combat.

Officially, it was chalked up to "general maintenance" which, for all anyone knows, might be an officer in the Canadian armed forces.

Wednesday, Jokinen had been upgraded (downgraded?) to day-to-day.

"If it was a regular-season game, I would've finished, so it's no big deal,'' he protested, as a few players - those not in Saskatoon for the split-squad exhibition against the N.Y. Islanders - drifted into the Pengrowth Saddledome for off-ice conditioning. "If it was important, I could play tonight. No problem.''

Pivots Matt Stajan (separated shoulder), Daymond Langkow (neck) and Ryan Stone (knee) are already sidelined, so the strapping Finn's well-being is of utmost importance just at the moment.

From what anybody could tell, Jokinen seemed to suffer the injury while taking a shot.

"It happened before that, then I tried to play a couple of shifts and felt a little bit of pain when I shot the puck. But it's . . . no big deal, like I say. It's not my job to comment on injuries. But it's nothing major."