After leaving practice early on Tuesday, Jake Guentzel was back on the ice on Wednesday as a full participant. With injuries trickling their way onto just about every forward line for the Lightning, it was nice to see the 30-year-old (and his 22 points) skating with Brayden Point and, at times, Nikita Kucherov. Tampa Bay really can’t afford too many more injuries up front as they head into the middle portion of their schedule.
There was more good news as Nick Paul was on the ice taking regular shifts and participating on the second power play unit. Mitchell Chaffee was also on the ice, but was wearing a non-contact jersey, so his return could be a little further off. As for Kucherov, according to those who were in attendance, he left before the team worked on special teams. That left for some interesting combinations on the power play:
Special teams report: PP1: Point-Cirelli-Hagel-Hedman-Guentzel PP2: Geekie-Paul-Atkinson-Goncalves-Raddysh Kucherov is no longer on the ice. #GoBolts
— Benjamin Pierce (@boltsben.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 11:18 AM
As for the even-strength lines, they started to resemble what the Lightning rolled with prior to their run of injuries up front.
#GoBolts forward combos: Guentzel-Point-Kucherov Hagel-Cirelli-Paul Goncalves-Geekie-Atkinson Girgensons-Glendening-Eyssimont Chaffee (non contact)
— Benjamin Pierce (@boltsben.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 11:00 AM
[image or embed]
After Kucherov left, things were jumbled up a little with Over-Age Gage joining the top line and Chaffee skating with Conor Geekie and Cameron Atkinson.
Following their game tomorrow against the frisky San Jose Sharks, the Lightning have another two days off before heading out west for four games. All of the players are listed as “day-to-day” officially, but it looks like Nick Paul is all but ready to go, with the other two forwards slightly more doubtful. There is a chance, that if a player like Chaffee or Kucherov, are on the cusp of returning, the team could give them an extra game off, thus allowing them an entire week of recovery time.
The Lightning will close out the 2024 portion of the schedule with a relatively light schedule. They only have 11 games this month, and their only back-to-back is at the end of the month. Hopefully, with a couple of multi-day breaks sprinkled throughout December, they have a chance to get healthy. When they are firing at all cylinders, they’ve shown they can be a playoff team.
One thing to keep an eye on over the next 24 hours will be the transaction wire. If the Bolts recall someone from Syracuse, then chances are Chaffee and Kucherov will both be out. If we had to wager a guess, Coach Cooper would like to get back to a 12/6 line-up, but he needs 12 healthy forwards to do that.
