More injuries mount for Lightning before facing Blues

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 22, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – The Lightning returned to the ice Thursday morning minus a couple more players.

Already missing Steven Stamkos, Ben Bishop and Ryan Callahan to long-term injuries, Tampa Bay took part in the morning skate missing Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette. Both will miss tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues (Fox Sports Sun, 7:30 p.m.).

In addition, the Lightning will remain without Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov while facing one of the more difficult Western Conference opponents. Michael Bournival was recalled Thursday morning and is expected to be in the lineup.

Paquette, who missed Saturday’s game at Edmonton, was in the lineup on Tuesday against Detroit but took a puck off his foot while blocking a shot in the third period. Namestnikov, meanwhile, is sick and not able to play on Thursday and his status for Friday’s game at Washington is unclear.

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“We are losing more players than we are adding tonight so that’s a problem,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said.

While Paquette is injured, Namestnikov came down sick on Wednesday and is unable to play. His status for Friday’s game at Washington is also unknown.

With Paquette and Namesntikov out, that leaves Tampa Bay with 11 healthy forwards, which points to the team utilizing seven defenseman against St. Louis.

Bournival, meanwhile, played for Syracuse in a loss to Hartford on Wednesday night and flew to Tampa on Thursday morning. He was not on the ice for the morning skate.

Bournival appeared in three games earlier in the season, averaging 6:47 of ice time, collecting three shots on goal. The former Montreal Canadien had 10 goals and 19 points in 89 games with Montreal. He missed most of last season with concussion issues and signed as a free agent with the Lightning this summer. Bournival has five goals and 13 points in 25 games with the Crunch this season.

With Bishop out 3-4 weeks with a lower body injury, the team will now turn to Andrei Vasilevskiy to take the reigns as the No. 1 goaltender, a role Cooper feels Vasilevskiy is ready to handle.

“It’s never (good) when guys are getting hurt and it seems to happen on a regular basis now, but as proven all year for us, it’s 1 and 1A for us,” Cooper said. “Vasilevskiy now will take the lead role for us while Bish is out. We’ve never anticipated that our guys are going to get hurt, but he’s been playing for us more and we have obviously been grooming him to play more games in the NHL. Now he’s definitely getting the chance. The one thing about playing that position, you need reps. Slowly but surely over the past couple of years he’s been getting those reps and they are going to pile up for him pretty fast now. He’s a National Hockey League goaltender and a really good one. The future is bright for him and the future is now.”

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