Fife Flyers head coach Todd Dutiaume says their early-season injury worries are easing but Simon Fernholm will spend another weekend on the sidelines as he recovers from a head knock.
The 28-year-old Swedish defenceman has only played two games for the club and Todd Dutiaume, Fife’s head coach, revealed that he is allowing the 6ft 6in-tall player time before he gets back into action.
Stockholm-born Fernholm he said was a long-term injury and he added: “We are dealing with a head injury here and we do not have a specific timeline on that.”
That is why Fife are continuing to trawl world-wide, both in Europe and North America, for a stand-in and Dutiaume added: “We are looking at the possibility of injury coverage and if we can bring somebody in.
“We are also looking at bringing somebody in to make necessary improvements to our line-up.
“We are close, and we have been close a number of times in the past, but there are a number of names out there that we feel we could possibly pull the trigger on.
“However, it has to be the right decision for us and we only have a limited amount of changes we are allowed to make. It is quite crucial that we are decisive and move quickly to give these guys the support they need.”
He added that there is “a name or two we are pursuing in North America” as well as a European option.
Fife, sponsored by Wolseley, travel to Nottingham Panthers on Saturday (19.00) in the Premier Sports Elite League and entertain misfiring Aspray Glasgow West sponsored Glasgow Clan in the Challenge Cup on Sunday (18.00) where a win should see Fife through to the knockout stages of the first major of the season.
Panthers are sixth in the ten-strong league with four points from the same number of matches having won one in regulation and another in sudden death overtime and lost two games.
They are bottom of their three-strong Challenge Cup section which also incudes Sheffield Steelers and Manchester Storm with two points from three games, winning once in overtime and losing the other two.
Goalscoring has been an issue in the cup, scoring five and letting in nine, but they have scored 12 in the league and shipped 13.
Fife have yet to record a point in the league after four outings and have scored nine goals and conceded 18, while, in the cup, they are third in their four-strong section with five points from five games and have scored 14 and let in 17.
Dutiaume said: “Everybody should be fit and well to play bar Fernholm. As it stands right now, we should have a full line-up. That’s because we are carrying an extra player.
“Dillon Lawrence is on the mend. There are a few minor issues he is dealing with but nothing that is going to keep him out and we expect him to play regular shifts at the weekend.
“Mikael Johansson was out there last weekend, he looked good, he is tired but we had a high tempo practice on Wednesday and that was designed to ensure we had a compete level for 60 minutes in games as well as getting these guys up for playing teams who have been playing for a good number of weeks.
“Johansson needs to get himself in game shape quickly and we expect him to have more minutes on the weekend.”
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