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SALT LAKE CITY — There might be a new sign at the Delta Center soon enough.
Help wanted: Defenseman.
The Utah Hockey Club's suddenly thin blue line got more bad news Friday when head coach André Tourigny revealed defenseman John Marino will be out "months" with an upper-body injury. The team had previously declared the injury was "week-to-week."
Marino, who the team traded for in the summer, didn't skate in training camp and started the season on injured reserve. He didn't travel with the team during its four-game road swing.
The update came in the wake of defenseman Sean Durzi's upper-boy injury that is expected to keep him out for at least four months.
Tourigny did say he expects Durzi to return this season.
"He will be back this year — not soon enough —but he will be back," the head coach said.
Durzi and Marino were projected to be two of Utah's top three defensemen, putting the team in a tough bind just five games into the season.
Due to that shrinking D-corps, Mikhail Sergachev logged 28 minutes of ice time, while Ian Cole was on the ice for 25 minutes during Utah's overtime loss to Anaheim. Michael Kesselring and Juuso Välimäki also saw their time increase, especially after Robert Burtuzzo left the game early.
One bit of good news: Burtuzzo is expected to be in the lineup for Saturday's game against the Boston Bruins.
The key to Utah's defense moving forward will be trying to manage the minutes of their top defensemen.
"I love playing a lot, so I feel great. It just expedites the process for me of getting back to my form and me playing with confidence," said Sergachev, who missed time last season with a left leg fracture. "But it sucks that we have too many injuries."
While the physical demands of playing half a game are obvious, Sergachev said it can also affect a player mentally. There are more plays to think about and more scenarios that run through a mind — even after the contest.
"Sometimes it's harder to go to sleep," he said.
Ian Cole said the key to being productive with the increased workload is to be able to compartmentalize the game and the recovery.
"You try not to pace yourself out there. You try to make sure that every minute you're playing is hard and high-end. And then it's as soon as that game's over, the switch flips," he said. "It's recover, get as much sleep as you can, hydration, whatever you need to do to get there. But that switch needs to flip quickly."
Tourigny is hopeful the team can find a rotation to avoid overextending its top blue liners.
"To play to their full potential, they need to be set up to play their full potential," he said. "Right now, if I'm a guy who normally plays between 18 and 20 minutes and then plays 24, there's a reason why it's tough for me. I make more mistakes and it's more demanding for energy. So we need to find a way to get our guys in the better range."
Tourigny did have some better news: center Nick Bjugstad is inching toward a return. Bjugstad didn't participate in training camp and hasn't suited up for Utah, but was with the team during its first road trip of the year.
"Probably a week, 10 days, something like that," Tourigny said. "Right now he's in contact drills and stuff like that, so he's getting there."
He just wishes he could say the same for his injured defesemen, too.
