Key players ruled out of Fife Flyers’ road trip to Cardiff

The scheduling sends Tom Coolen’s injury hit side to Cardiff Devils, and then home again for a rest weekend, which the coach will happily take as he looks to give his players time to heal. Flyers don’t hit home ice again until Sunday, October 19 when they host Guildford Flames.

Coolen has four key players on the treatment table, exposing the limited depth of his roster.

Defenceman Olivier LeBlanc and Patrick Kyte are out, along with Kazakhstan forward Nikolai Shulga, while Johnny Curran continues his recovery from injury.

New Latvian netminder Jānis Voris finally arrived in Kirkcaldy this week, and hit the ice for the first time on Wednesday as the team had an optional skate ahead of the evening Challenge Cup tie against Belfast Giants which ended in a painful 7-0 whitewash. .

The 24-year old, who was his country’s award winning World Junior U18/U20 goalie in 2017/18 and 2019/20, is unlikely to feature on the Welsh road trip as Coolen gives him time to settle in. Cameron Kenny will hop on the bus and back stop Shane Owen as Fife go in search on league points.

The club has won just one of its five opening games, but wins in Cardiff have been a rarity over many seasons of hockey.

Coolen admits the injuries are hurting his team, and he has limited wiggle room to make moves with tight new restrictions on the number of imports a team can sign - but he continues to look to strengthen his roster.

Kyte took a hefty knock as he collided with the goal-posts on Saturday, and the coach hopes he will return next weekend, but Shulga is out for two weeks with an upper body injury sustained on the road at Guildford. Curran is looking to lace up, but team captain LeBlanc seems set to miss this weekend.

“My top pairing defenceman are both out,” said Coolen. “They are my go to guys and have been food for us. We are also minus two top forwards and that will hurt.

“It’s not easy, but we have to find ways to win. We’re playing Belfast and Cardiff back to back - two of the big four clubs - short benched.” Flyers were set to recall James Spence to help out in the midweek Challenge Cup tie against Giants while Fynn Page seemed set to get ice time.

The coach is aware of the limitations of the depth of his roster, and the fans’ desire to see more home-based skaters on the ice - a thorny issue that has dogged the club for a number of seasons.

“I could dress three or four pee-wees, but you cannot just throw young kids into games like this,” he said. “It is a huge step up to this level. We’re getting good minutes out of Brodie Kay and nurturing him along and he is doing well. “The reality is the top British skaters are mainly with the big four clubs - I got to hand it to Dundee for finding a way to land Ben O’Connor.

“Where we are right now reminds of last January. We played with five defencemen and Brodie as back up, and had nine out of the forwards on the ice. We got through it then and our aim is to do so again.”