Injury Report

I feel so NFL-ish with all this injury talk, but as briefly noted in my previous post, the Bucks have placed defensemen Steve Weidlich and Jaye Judd on the injured reserve.

Weidlich, a seventh-year Buck, is often jokingly called the oldest non-veteran in the league because his very frequent IR stints had kept him from reaching the vet mark prior to this season, and this will be his second break due to injury, though first IR stay, of the season.

The press release doesn't state what Weidlich's injury was, so I probably shouldn't say too much, but I will tell you he was neither limping nor wearing a sling this week...and the second page of Robert Keith's photo album from Saturday night's game can tell you a little bit more.

Judd, on the other hand, is a rookie, and this will be his second IR stint of the season. I was never entirely sure what happened to him last time, and this time is the same case, as he was hurt in Friday night's road game against the Corpus Christi IceRays. I do know a rough check into the boards was the culprit, but I'm not sure about the nature of the injury.

Each has been placed on the 14-day IR, with Judd's stay retroactive to Jan. 16 and Weidlich's retroactive to Jan. 17.

In addition to placing those guys on the IR, the Bucks activated defenseman Vincent Zaore-Vanie, who should play for the first time since Nov. 25 in Saturday's game at the Mississippi RiverKings.

Ironically enough, it was during the Bucks' 5-3 loss to the RiverKings at the LEC that night that he was injured in the first place.

As I had talked about last week, Zaore had been in full practices with the team for a few days before experiencing a minor setback in his recovery, but he told me earlier this week he is feeling much better, so he should be ready to go.

With Zaore coming back, the Bucks will be back up to six defensemen on their active roster. Interesting statistical note: Weidlich has 13 points so far this season after posting only 12 all of last season...of course, he did only play in 28 games during the entire 2007-08 campaign and has been in 34 so far this time around. Oh, and Judd's plus/minus of plus-11 leads Bucks' defensemen and all rookie CHL D-men.

All-Star rookie center Darryl Smith should also be returning for Saturday night's game after missing two in a row with a minor "lower body" injury. He said he really wanted to play last night but was in some pain when he skated earlier in the day, so they decided to hold off on bringing him back.

And last but not least, rookie center Ryan Salvis, who missed both of last weekend's games with an "upper body" affliction that required some icing after a physical third period last night, is said to be doing just fine and also expected to play on Saturday.