Tampa Bay Lightning beat reporter Bryan Burns shared via Twitter that according to head coach Jon Cooper, Tyler Johnson is questionable for tomorrow’s game against the Bruins after missing this morning’s practice.
Tyler Johnson, who did not practice today, is “questionable” for tomorrow’s game vs. Boston according to Cooper.
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) October 30, 2015
While the Triplets haven’t been lighting it up so far (Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov have a combined 4 goals and 7 assists in 11 games ), this is still fairly big news for the Lightning especially if Jonathan Drouin and Cedric Paquette are also ruled out for tomorrow’s game.
In the short term, Vladislav Namestnikov potentially could be moving into Johnson’s spot on the second line. Namestnikov has been playing very well and his possession numbers have been some of the best among the Lightning forwards. He has the two-way, play making style with great speed that would be a good fit between Palat and Kucherov. While Johnson was serving a even up penalty in the Avs game, Namestnikov shifted up to play a shift with that line in Johnson’s spot.
If Drouin, Paquette, and Johnson are all unable to go, that leaves the team with 11 forwards ready to play. With 23 skaters already on the roster, a player (most likely Paquette) would have to be placed on Injured Reserve for the team to call up a replacement forward from Syracuse. The other option is to play with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.
If the team determines a call-up is needed, the most likely options are Mike Angelidis, Mike Blunden, Tye McGinn or Jeff Tambellini. All four have NHL experience with Tambellini having the most at 242 games and are all capable of playing 10 minutes a game on the fourth line. Blunden and Tambellini have produced the most with Syracuse so far both with 2 goals and 2 assists, but none of these players would be brought in for their offensive production.
We have to hope that Tyler Johnson’s injury is minimal and that he doesn’t miss more than a game or two. Additionally, Tampa Bay could use Drouin and Paquette to get back on the ice as well.
