If you’re of the giving nature and wondering what to get Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper for the holidays, a healthy but cheap defenseman with NHL experience is likely at the top of his current wish list. With Erik Cernak already missing time due to an injury, the Lightning were dealt a double blow in their win against the Calgary Flames on Thursday as Victor Hedman was scratched prior to the game with an unknown lower-body injury. Then, J.J. Moser left the game early with an injury of his own, leaving the Lightning to finish the game with just five healthy blueliners.
Hedman’s injury was a bit of a surprise as he took part in the warm-up skate prior to the 8-3 victory, but when the starting line-ups were announced, it was Steven Santini making his Lightning debut instead of the captain. An already taxed blueline really picked up their play once Moser left after losing his edge and falling on Nazem Kadri’s second-period goal. The patchwork defense held the Flames to just one more goal overall and five scoring chances in the third period.
Ryan McDonagh led the way with 24:51 of ice time, but Emil Lilleberg (22:25), Nick Perbix (21:19), and Darren Raddysh (19:37) all logged big minutes. Even Santini eclipsed the 11 minute mark despite being with the team less than a day.
We don’t know what their status for Saturday’s game will be, or how Coach Cooper will deal with his blueline. The only update we’ve heard so far is regarding Moser, who is “highly doubtful” to play according to his coach. If Cernak or Hedman aren’t able to go, the Lightning will call up another defenseman from Syracuse, but the pickings there are a little slimmer than usual as they are dealing with their own injury issues.
A likely candidate, Max Crozier, hasn’t suited up for the Crunch since the middle of December November. AHL veteran Tobie Bisson hasn’t played a game in December. That leaves Declan Carlile and Derrick Pouliot as the two potential call-ups. For a Crunch defense that is already sporting three players that started the year with Orlando in Scott Walford, Tyson Feist, and Chris Harpur, things will be a little dire in the Salt City if the Lightning pluck one of the healthy blueliners from their roster.
Could the Lightning go with the non-traditional 13-forward, 5-defensemen line-up? Sure, they could, but a quick bit of research shows that teams don’t fare too well when they deploy that type of line-up. In fact, the Lightning were the beneficiaries of one of the more recent attempts as the Flyers dressed just 5 defenders in their 7-0 loss to the Bolts last spring. (Way off topic, a photo of John Tortorella screaming at the officials during that game remains my avatar at work to this day).
It’s unlikely they’ll bring anyone in via a trade unless the injuries are more problematic than initially thought.
It’s not just that the Lightning will be shorthanded on defense. They are missing three of their top four defensemen as of right now, with the loss of Hedman being a tremendous blow to both the offense and defense. A year after struggling a bit in his own zone, the Lightning’s captain has returned to his shutdown ways:
With the return of McDonagh, Coach Cooper has been able to take some of the defensive load off of Hedman, and The Big Swede has responded. He also developed instant chemistry with Moser, providing a stable pairing that can chew up twenty minutes a night.
Hedman may have lost a step on the ice, but his positioning in his own zone has been superb this year, and he’s back to keeping the front of the net clean. On those occasions, his offense has left him out of position when teams counterattack; Moser has the wheels to get back in position to hold the fort until the team can recover.
If all three players miss Saturday’s game, it’s going to be coverage-by-committee for the team, with the rebuilt blueline relying on the forwards to fill in any coverage caps. We saw a bit of that on Thursday when Nikita Kucherov’s back-check led to Jake Guentzel’s second goal of the game.
According to Gabby Shirley, Cernak was on the ice for practice today, but Hedman and Moser were not. If he can return to the line-up, he’ll probably pair up with McDonagh on the top pair with Nick Perbix swinging to his off-side and partnering with Santini. If Cernak can’t go, well, it’s anybody’s guess on how the pairings will go against Seattle.
We saw this last year around this time when the Lightning defense was without Mikhail Sergachev and others for a stretch. Tampa Bay was able to patch things together with call-ups, until the veterans came back. If they go that route again this season, we will probably hear about it around the time they take to the ice for their morning skate.
Stay tuned!
