Nikko IceBucks injuries

Only 5 games into this 2008-09 AL season (36 games long), the Nikko IceBucks have already been hit by the injury bug in their games against the Seibu Prince Rabbits and the China Sharks. Forward Kojiro Tsuji and Defencemen Keisuke Toda and Toshiaki Okamoto are all out of the lineup for an extended period of time, this came in a crucial period of the Bucks season where the team plays 6 games in the first 12 days of October where a 3 game Korean roadtrip is thrown in for good measure.

Tsuji is out for 2 months with a spine fracture.

Toda is out for 3 weeks with a right ankle bone fracture.

Okamoto is recovering from his left wrist fracture but won’t be able to return to the team for another 2 weeks.

Since the Bucks have a bare minimum roster of 23 players, and all injured players received significant playing time last season, these injuries have critical impact on the team in a very trying part of their schedule. We’ll see how the team copes with this situation starting with the game against a resurgent and powerful Anyang Halla (their power play firing at 110%, literally, as AL measures PP success against PP time, and Halla have scored 11 PP goals in only 20 minutes of man advantage) tonight at home at Kirifuri Arena.