Tampa Bay Lightning Look To Get Back On Track In Ottawa

It certainly has been an up and down week for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It started off great with a decisive 5 to 3 victory in the Bell Centre on Monday night against the Montreal Canadiens to secure a playoff spot for the second consecutive year. With that win, the Lightning also swept the season series against the Habs winning all five games. That was the first time Montreal has been swept by a team in 30 years.

Then, Tuesday night happened. The Tampa Bay Lightning headed to the Air Canada Centre to take on the dreadful Toronto Maple Leafs, who were seemingly eliminated from playoff contention back in January. Unfortunately, the Bolts would ultimately lose 3-1.

Yes, they are playing with a lot of injuries to key players but so are a lot of teams. There are some significant injuries to a lot of playoff teams now. Names like Ryan Kesler, Mark Giordano, Patrick Kane and Pavel Datsyuk just to list a few star players that are injured and could miss ice time as their teams jockey for playoff position.

There are others like Kris Letang and Vladimir Tarasenko that will miss some games for their respective teams.

As of now, the status for the injured Lightning players are as follows: Victor Hedman (lower body) and Tyler Johnson (upper body) are day to day and could be on the ice in the next game or two. Clearly, both Hedman and Johnson will be ready come the playoffs. Andrej Sustr (upper body) was reported to be out 1 to 2 weeks on Monday night. Worse case, that brings him back on or about April 13th. The playoffs for the Lightning would probably begin anywhere from April 14th to April 16th. So, Sustr should be back in time for the first round.

Braydon Coburn (lower body) was originally diagnosed to be out 4 to 6 weeks on March 12th. That would put him back on the ice anywhere from April 9th to April 23rd. My best guess would be that we see him towards the end of the first round series which if it goes 5 to 7 games would end between the 22nd and 28th of April.

Jason Garrison (upper body) is the injury that causes me the greatest concern. The report from the team on Monday afternoon said he would probably be out for 3 to 4 weeks. That would mean he will be back between the 20th and 27th of April. I think we see Garrison in the second round. Keep in mind that not only must these injured players heal what ails them, but they also have to work to get themselves in game shape. Coburn and Garrison would seemingly have the most work to do in this respect as they would have missed the most time.

As always, Bolts by the Bay will keep you posted on any developments on the team’s injured players.

The schedule continues and up next tomorrow night for the Tampa Bay Lightning is the Ottawa Senators. Another game for the Bolts, and another team fighting for its playoff life. Despite the injuries, despite playing three games in four nights, the Bolts have to be ready from the moment they take the ice.

The Senators are three points behind Boston and they have a game in hand over the Bruins. If anyone in the Tampa organization does not think the Senators will give it all they have to win this, they are fooling themselves. It is do or die for Ottawa. Even though they have cooled off a bit, they still had as strong a month of March as anyone in the NHL finishing with a record of 11-3-2 last month.

Andrew Hammond is one of the hottest goalies in the league and was nominated for the Bill Masterton trophy which goes to the NHL player that best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication. Additionally, this team has firepower with Erik Karlsson, Bobby Ryan and Kyle Turris. This will be a formidable challenge for the Lightning.

This is game four of the current five game road trip and the Tampa Bay Lightning are 1 and 2 so far on the trip. Injuries aside, it has to be next man up. They need to play the type of game they played Monday against Montreal and less like the team that played in Detroit and Toronto. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Next: Tampa Bay Lightning Prove Depth Is An Invaluable Asset

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