Tampa Bay Lightning F Cedric Paquette leaves game after getting hand stepped on
The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered an injury early in the first period as forward Cedric Paquette gets his hand stepped on inside the faceoff circle.
The Tampa Bay Lightning is no stranger to injuries. As is with any contact sport, injuries are an unfortunate part of the game. Regrettably, the Lightning have become a little too accustomed to playing injured.
Tonight, the Lightning opened the doors to the Amalie Arena to take on their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers, in their first game of the 2018-19 season. Almost halfway through the first period, the Lightning would suffer their first injury of the season.
Lightning forward Cedric Paquette was taking a faceoff where he found himself battling hard for the puck. Sadly, somewhere along the way Paquette lost his balance and ended up using his hands to regain his composure. In the seconds his hands were on the ice, disaster would strike.
Panthers forward Troy Brouwer would attempt to fight for possession of the puck when he would inadvertently step on the hand of Cedric Paquette. It was immediately apparent Paquette was in pain as he sent his glove flying and immediately started favoring his left hand.
It wouldn’t be long before Paquette would make his way off the ice and down the tunnel to the Lightning locker room. Regrettably, the extent of his injuries is unknown at this point.
One could say, “at least he had a glove on.” While this may be true, a glove can only provide so much protection and when put up against the blade of a skate, there’s not a whole lot the glove can do to prevent an injury from happening. If not from the slash of the skate, the sheer acute pressure on the bones.
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Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli took Cedric Paquette’s place on the fourth line once Paquette made his way back to the locker room. While there’s always a chance Paquette could return, we wouldn’t start holding our breath. He was in quite a bit of pain after the unfortunate encounter with Brouwer’s skate.