Nugent-Hopkins injures shoulder again

Rookie of the year frontrunner and Oilers franchise player Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is back on the injured list, just five periods after coming off it.

Nugent-Hopkins missed 13 games with a shoulder injury, returned for a game and two periods and then, after a harmless-looking bump with Mike Brown of the Toronto Maple Leafs, left the ice holding the same shoulder.

The Oilers claim the first injury and the second injury are unrelated, although that's somewhat hard to believe given it was a pretty minor bump and he'd only been back for 48 hours.

"It's the same area, it's the same shoulder, but it's a new one," said the 18-year-old. "Compared to the first one, it's not even close. That's a good thing, but I'm looking to get back sooner than later."

Related or not, two of Nugent-Hopkins' last three games have resulted in shoulder injuries.

"It can be frustrating, but I'm going to try and stay positive through all of this right now," said Nugent-Hopkins. "He (Brown) is obviously a solid guy and we were both going for the puck and we both collided shoulder on shoulder.

"I could feel as soon as I got hit that my shoulder kind of dropped and I could just kind of feel it."

The Oilers say he'll be out seven to 10 days.

Copyright (C) 2012 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.