Lightning Round: How serious is Erik Cernak’s injury?

During the last game against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak left the ice early in the second period after blocking a shot on the penalty kill and didn’t return for the rest of the game. It’s not the first time this season Erik Cernak couldn’t finish the game due to injury, earlier he sustained an injury during the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and missed two games. So far the team has not released any update on the status of the player and Cernak remains day-to-day with a lower body injury and is questionable for tonight’s game against the Dallas Stars.

However yesterday, the Syracuse Crunch recalled defeneseman Devante Stephens, which might be an indication that the Lighting could bring another defensemen to their taxi squad. Currently the Lightning have six defenseman on their active roster (given that Erik Cernak is injured) and one on the taxi squad (Andreas Borgman). Borgman hasn’t played a single game so far for the Lightning since signing a deal last October, although Jon Cooper has been mentioning many times that he will definitely get a chance.

If Cernak’s out, the Lightning will potentially replace him with Luke Schenn, who hasn’t played since the last Monday. During the last Cernak’s absence, Scheen had seen the highest ice-time of this season, playing around 13-15 minutes per game, despite rarely reaching the 10-minute mark in other games. Another possibility for the Lightning is bringing up Borgman to equally distribute Erik Cernak’s ice time between him, Cal Foote and Luke Schenn, while running a 11/7 roster.

Lightning Links

Jon Cooper reflected on latest games, admitting that the team wasn’t playing very good, but managed to find their game last week.

Mathieu Joseph has become a new guest of the Lightning’s show “The Block Party“

The Orlando Solar Bears scored three quick goals during the first period and managed to keep the advantage until the final.

Hockey News

According to Pierre LeBrun, the former Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is ready for a new job.

The Toronto Maple Leafs forward and the NHL’s goal scoring leader is day-to-day with hand injury.

The Minnesota Wild have extended their winning streak to six game after last night’s victory against the Los Angeles Kings, while Kirill Kaprizov’s chances to win the Calder Trophy keep increasing.

The WHL’s shortened regular season have finally started last night.