Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ondrej Palat will not take the ice with his team tonight against the Anaheim Ducks, and is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has seen more than the share of five teams this season when it comes to injuries. Just as soon as the Lightning finally start to get players back in the lineup, it seems another one is headed to the sidelines with any number of injuries.
The bad news is, this series of unfortunate events doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. Earlier today, the Lightning took the ice at the Amalie Arena to prepare to take on their latest challenge, the Anaheim Ducks. After practice, Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper took a moment to speak with the media.
Unfortunately, the news he had is not exactly what one would refer to as inspiring. What really makes matters all that much worse is, this kind of news has become so frequent, the fans here in the Bolts Nation have almost become numb to it.
Tampa Bay Lightning
According to Coach Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ondrej Palat suffered an undisclosed injury late in Thursday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators and is now considered to be day-to-day. As you can imagine, Palat will not be taking the ice with his teammates tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.
As usual, Cooper wasn’t exactly what one would call giving with the details of the situation, but it is abundantly clear this is a situation in need of further evaluation.
"“Really good chance Palat’s not playing tonight,” Coach Cooper said. “Then we’ll just keep re-evaluating after that.”"
As one could easily imagine, this is definitely not good news for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ondrej Palat has played in 47 games with the Lightning so far this season. In that amount of time, Palat has scored 10 goals and 15 assists for a total of 25 points.
Once again, an injury will cause Jon Cooper to shift the lines and put together the best possible combination before the Bolts take on the Ducks tonight at the Amalie Arena. Fortunately, there is some good news coming out of the Bolts Nation today.
According to Tampa Bay Lightning Beat Writer Bryan Burns, Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop was the first goalie off the ice this morning and is expected to get the start between the pipes tonight. Burns also brought to light a fun fact that should do well to put a smile on the face of Lightning fans.
According to Burns, Bishop is 6-0-2 against the Ducks in his career. We’ll take those numbers any day.
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The Tampa Bay Lightning face a tough challenge tonight; especially considering they are losing yet another valued player to injury. Unfortunately, the time for excuses has come and gone and if the Lightning wants to salvage any part of the 2016-17 season, the time for change is now.