Palat joins the list of injured forwards for Tampa Bay Lightning

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
March 17, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – As the Lightning began practice Friday afternoon, Ondrej Palat slowly made his way toward the player’s parking lot, limping his way out of Amalie Arena.

In a long laundry list of injuries incurred by the Lightning recently, Palat looks to be the next man down for Tampa Bay.

Already without centers Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette, Palat’s status is questionable as the team is expected to announce the recall of Joel Vermin from Syracuse of the American Hockey League before Saturday’s game against Washington (7 p.m. EDT, Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM and tblpowerplay.com

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There was no indication when Palat was injured during Thursday’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs as Palat logged more than 20 minutes in the game, right in line with line mates Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point.

While head coach Jon Cooper did not offer any specifics about Palat’s situation, he did not sound overly optimistic when asked about it on Friday.

”We’ll see…that’s all I got for you,’’ Cooper said. “We’re getting to the point where it’s next man up. I’m not going to sit here and show concern yet. We’ll see what happens.’’

Assuming Vermin was called up on an emergency basis, he would have to be returned to Syracuse if Palat is healthy enough to play.

Cooper did add that Namestnikov – who participated in practice while wearing a no-contact jersey – is ruled out along with Johnson, who has yet to resume skating nine days after being injured against Minnesota, and Paquette.

But Palat wasn’t the only absent skater at Friday’s practice. Defenseman Jake Dotchin, who appeared to get banged up at the end of Tuesday’s game in Ottawa, did not skate although he logged just over 19 minutes of ice time on Thursday against Toronto.

“I’m not concerned yet,” Cooper said of Dotchin. “We’ll see. It’s too early to tell.”

With Dotchin out, Luke Witkowski – who has been playing at forward the past couple of weeks – was taking rushes on defense alongside Victor Hedman.

So what started out on what should have been a positive note as captain Steven Stamkos joined the team for a full practice for the first time since knee surgery on Nov. 17, turned out to be just another day of injuries piling up.

No matter the situation, especially during the last stretch of games, Cooper knows what to expect from his team despite the less-than-stellar performance from a mentally fatigued team on Thursday.

”The one good thing about this team is that work ethic has never been an issue,’’ Cooper said. “It’s tough to come back after a loss last night but I thought (they looked reenergized)’’ at practice.

The lines at practice were: Stamkos-Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov; Alex Killorn-Jonathan Drouin-Yanni Gourde; Namestnikov-Byron Froese-Adam Erne; Gabriel Dumont-Greg McKegg-J.T. Brown.

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