Lightning start important 5-game stretch with healthier lineup

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 27, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – The Lightning entered the three-day Christmas break with a long wish list for the holidays.

Following a loss in Washington in the final game before the break, Tampa Bay was missing more than a handful of regulars from the lineup, and in the course of that game against the Capitals, two more players went down to injury and did not return.

That left the Lightning wondering exactly what the post-break lineup might look like as Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Cedric Paquette, Vladislav Namestnikov were already out. Jonathan Drouin and Braydon Coburn left the game against Washington while Victor Hedman missed the final minutes of the second period, but was able to return for the third period.

That was already on top of the long term absences of Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan and Ben Bishop.

So what did Santa leave as presents for head coach Jon Cooper to unwrap as the Lightning resumed practice?

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How about the gift of a return of an elite-level goal scorer, the team’s best two-way player and the team’s hottest scorer back on the ice and set to return to the lineup.

That appears to be the case as most of Tampa Bay’s injured players expect to be back in the lineup when Tampa Bay hosts Montreal on Wednesday.

“We’ll see how everybody is tomorrow, but I like the way Palat was today and Namestnikov, and Kucherov, and Drouin, Coburn, Hedman and go down the list,” Cooper said. “I liked a lot where those guys were. Obviously Stammer, Callahan and Bish are all out, but after that, there is a possibility for everybody now.”

Paquette is the only player from the possible returners unlikely to play as he came out for practice about 10 minutes late and then left after less than 10 minutes on the ice. Tampa Bay also recalled Matthew Peca, a 2011 seventh-round pick, from the Syracuse Crunch. With back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday, plus three games in four nights, Peca’s recall might be as much insurance as anything else as Tampa Bay has just 12 healthy forwards – assuming Paquette is unavailable – heading in to the week.

Either way, Tampa Bay knows this is an important stretch of games with five consecutive on home ice as the Lightning try to pull themselves up from the poor stretch that dropped them out of a playoff spot.

“This five-game homestand, let’s be honest, is a big one for us,” Cooper said. “We need to win games here. We weathered that major road-heavy first one-third of the season, now we have some home games and we have to win them. That starts (Wednesday).”

Getting back a healthy dose of healthy players will provide a boost.

“We were talking about it even before practice, how nice it was to have so many guys back,” center Tyler Johnson said. “It’s nice when you can welcome one or two guys back but we got a few more. It’s great for us, hopefully we can get everyone here soon.”

Some of that was evident as the Lightning returned to practice after three days off as the coaching staff put a plan together to work out “lots of food and some eggnog thrown in” with lots of different drills.

“It was good for us to get away from it for a few days, celebrate Christmas and not have to think about hockey at all,” defenseman Victor Hedman said. “Then come back (Tuesday) and go to work and everyone is refreshed and ready to go, so it was a good sign today. Like I said earlier, we put ourselves in a position where we’ll have to win a lot of hockey games down the stretch so a good start is obviously very big for us.

“Getting guys back is a big boost for us, confidence wise and getting guys back into the lineup is very important. It’s key guys, guys that contribute offensively and play big minutes so it’s good to get those guys back and have a good practice.”

Callahan update

It’s been a bit of a strange situation regarding the status of Callahan, who was considered probable to return at the beginning of the month, but was then held out a bit longer. He resumed skating when the team was in Western Canada, but did not get back in the lineup and has not skated with the team since.

But Cooper offered up a bit of an update on Callahan’s status on Tuesday.

“No update, but I truly believe, or hoping, that in the next week or so he can get back in to the fold,” Cooper said. “That’s what we are hoping, but I’ve thrown timetables on things before and they never work out, so we are hoping for that.”

Goaltending usage

Over the weekend I put up a poll asking how the goaltending time should be split up with Bishop out and Tampa Bay playing a handful of back-to-backs in the next few weeks.

With more than 460 votes tabulated, 50-percent have Vasilevskiy starting Wedneday and Kristers Gudlevskis on Thursday while 38-percent voted for Vasielvskiy to start both games.

So Cooper was asked that question following practice on Tuesday and here’s his response, with Vasilevskiy expected to be in goal against Montreal:

“Vasilevskiy is our goaltender and he’s going to play as much as he can play,” Cooper said, “but you also have to weigh in the fact that he’s a very young goaltender that hasn’t had a lot of starts in the NHL, so we really have to monitor these back-to-backs. You have to weigh in the fact that we have had three days off, he should be a little more rested. But we’ll make that determination after we play Montreal” as to whether he’ll start back-to-back games.

Line combinations

Here were the line combinations run at practice today.

So sans Paquette, here are lines:
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov
Boyle-Filppula-Drouin
Killorn-Point-Namestnikov
Bournival-Brown-Nesterov

— Erik Erlendsson (@Erik_Erlendsson) December 27, 2016

POST PRACTICE VIDEO

Jon Cooper

Tyler Johnson

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