Wildcats host MAINEiacs tonight
Published Tuesday December 1st, 2009
Injury-riddled Moncton is missing seven forwards
In his time with the Moncton Wildcats, Danny Flynn has never seen injuries pile up on his team like this.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club was already without three key forwards before it left for a weekend road trip. Moncton returned home yesterday with an additional three more players now out of the lineup.
When the Wildcats host the Lewiston MAINEiacs tonight at 7 p.m. at the Moncton Coliseum, they'll be without seven of 12 forwards from their lineup just three weeks ago (including rookie Raphael Bussières, who recently left the club).
The latest to join Moncton's medical clinic are forwards Andrew Roski (shoulder), who is expected to miss four to six weeks, Randy Cameron (leg) and Devon MacAusland.
Cameron will be examined today and so will MacAusland, who is feeling fatigued.
The Wildcats were already missing top-six forwards Kirill Kabanov (wrist), Matthew Bissonnette (concussion) and Pierre-Marc Lessard (concussion).
"When you look at our lineup right now, we're missing some top-end guys. But injuries are a part of hockey, every team has them and you have to try to find a way to overcome them," said Flynn, Moncton's head coach and director of hockey operations.
"I think our guys are playing hard, but it makes it tougher when you're missing a lot of top guys."
Flynn expects it will take a total team effort to help offset the offensive absences his team is dealing with.
Captain Scott Brannon shouldered the load on the weekend with three goals and Cameron was also productive with two goals and an assist after going through a slump.
"You need really good efforts from your healthy veteran guys and it also presents some opportunity for players to play more in key situations and a lot of them are responding," Flynn said.
"But not only have there been a lot of injuries this year, it's been a bizarre schedule, where we had three games in 21 days because of the HINI (virus) and the break in schedule (for the QMJHL-Russia Super Series) and now we're having four games over six days. You miss your depth when you're playing a lot of games in a short period of time."
The Wildcats will use some affiliate forwards to round out their roster tonight. Matt Tomah of the Woodstock Slammers of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League played against the Victoriaville Tigres Sunday.
Moncton, fourth in the Atlantic Division with a 14-10-1-2 record, has just two wins in its last eight games. The Wildcats are coming off a pair of losses on the weekend, 4-3 to the Shawinigan Cataractes and 5-4 to Victoriaville.
"I wouldn't say the injuries are an excuse, I would say it's a factor. And those were two good teams. Victoriaville has an outstanding record (20-8-0-1) and Shawinigan has a lot of guys back from a team that went to the finals and just beat Quebec 6-1 last week, so that's a pretty good team as well," Flynn said.
"I thought we played well in spurts in both games, but we had a hard time maintaining that intensity for 60 minutes. We had some breakdowns -- sometimes because we're playing guys in new positions -- and it cost us."
The struggling MAINEiacs have lost nine consecutive games and are last in the Central Division at 10-16-0-1, but did play the Wildcats tough in a 2-0 setback earlier this season.
"They're a young, building team with a lot of talent. I know the last time we saw them we had a hard-fought win and they were one of the best teams of the year we had seen at that point," Flynn said of Lewiston, which features former Moncton defenceman Matt Boyle.
"This is a league that is dominated by older players and when you're playing a lot of young guys and you're building, you're going to have growing pains and we've lived through that as well. But the last time in, I thought they had a lot of talent and certainly gave us all we could handle."
NOTES: Rouyn-Noranda Huskies forward Philippe Cornet is the QMJHL offensive player of the week. He had two goals and six assists in two games. Shawinigan defenceman Charles-Olivier Roussel is the defensive player of the week. He had two goals and three assists in three games ... The QMJHL has suspended Marshall Worden of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, a Sussex native, and Ashton Bernard of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10 games each following their fight during the warmup of Friday's game in Sydney, N.S.
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