LEWISTON – Some observers at Tuesday morning’s Lewiston Maineiacs practice started joking around about the number of injured players.
“It looks like there are more players in the stands watching than on the ice,” said one fan.
The rest of the small group laughed, turned and looked. While a case of hyperbole for sure, a glance at the stands showed why he would have said that.
Aside from Marc-Andre Cliche, who is most likely out for the remainder of the season, the recently injured Michal Korenko and Sheldon Wenzel, the former in a sling and the latter on crutches, also sat and watched practice.
Maxime Mathieu and Ryan Murphy, who are also nursing nagging injuries after a grueling weekend on the road, also stayed off the ice. But they are both expected to play tonight against Rimouski.
“Even I was tired,” admitted Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin on Tuesday. “(Monday), I was still so exhausted. It was a tough trip, a rough trip. We needed to get home and rest.”
The latest injuries have left holes on defense and in the “toughness” category. Korenko broke his wrist while bracing himself while being checked cleanly against Acadie-Bathurst, and Wenzel played most of the game Sunday against Rimouski before a referee landed on his leg and caused ligament damage.
“Korenko’s break was a bad break,” said Jodoin. “We were lucky when (Mathieu) Aubin came back a bit early from his injury, but I don’t know about this one. Every injury is different and will heal different. Wenzel is out for one week at least.”
The injury to Korenko means that Jodoin will not have the option to rotate rookies Sebastien Piche and Jonathan Cameron into the lineup as previously expected.
“Our defense was solid,” said Jodoin. “I liked that setup we had, with the mix of veterans and younger players.”
On the forward lines, with Murphy and Mathieu expected to play. The top three lines Jodoin has been using seem to remain largely intact, with Alexandre Picard, Alex Bourret and Aubin on the top line, Colby Gilbert, Derek Bailey and Mathieu on a “stopper” line and Murphy, Nick Cowan and Marc-Andre Daneau on a grinder line that has lately found a scoring touch.
The team is calling Guy Belisle back into service this week as well. It was expected that a team representative was going to pick Belisle up in Canada on Tuesday, and he could see playing time alongside Pierre-Luc Champagne and Eric Castonguay tonight.
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