Tampa Bay Lightning welcome quick break before final 11-game stretch drive

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
March 19, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – The condensed schedule put in to effect this season by the NHL claims every team at some point.

In a season compressed by the World Cup of Hockey at the start of the season and the implementation of the bye week – a stretch of seven days between games – that every team experienced this season, the pay back comes in the form of playing a group of games in to a small window on the calendar.

With Saturday’s loss to Washington, Tampa Bay completed a set of six games in 10 nights, it’s the third such grouping of games this season. But with how had the Lightning have had to push to climb out of the cellar and in to playoff contention and with a lineup that included eight players that were either in the minors or with another team at the start of the season.

A crash of some sort shouldn’t come as a surprise.

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So now with two days between games, it offers a quick respite to gain as much rest as possible to get ready for the final 11 games left on the schedule, which starts Tuesday against Arizona (7:30 p.m. EDT, Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM, tblpowerplay.com.
“You just deal with the schedule as it comes,’’ defenseman Braydon Coburn said. “We have a lot of new faces in here so it will give us a chance to practice together and develop a little bit of chemistry and just keep hammering away on a lot of things to make us a good team heading down the stretch here.

“Every guy in the dressing room here, our goal is to make the playoffs. We have to put it together one game at a time here, as cliche as that is, but it has to start next week.’’

But there is no doubting that Tampa Bay looked like a tired team in the two losses to close out the latest six-game stretch. It was that way for most of the game against Toronto and then in the third period against Washington.

Arriving back in town at 5 a.m. following the game at Ottawa didn’t help the matter.

”It’s been tough, we’ve been on the road with some late trips,’’ left wing Alex Killorn said. “Guys just need to get rested up and realize with 11 games left we have a great opportunity. We’ll put this one (Saturday) behind us and go from there. But we need to get some rest these next couple of days, hopefully we get some guys back in the lineup, some guys that have been hurt.’’

Both Joel Vermin and Byron Froese were reassigned to Syracuse on Sunday, which opens up some possibilities for somebody to ready to return from injury. Vermin was earmarked for a return when Ondrej Palat was able to play on Saturday against Washington.

Froese, meanwhile, is on an emergency recall which means that once somebody is eligible to return from injury, Froese has to be returned. Each team has an unlimited amount of emergency recalls after the trade deadline, but only four straight recalls, all of which have been used up by the Lightning – Adam Erne, Gabriel Dumont, Yanni Gourde and Jake Dotchin.

But Froese was also reassigned on Wednesday only to be recalled on Thursday, a move that was a paper transaction to save some salary cap space. Whether that is the case in this instance will be become more clear when the Lightning return to practice on Monday.

Vladislav Namestnikov has skated the past two days with the team while wearing a no-contact jersey and might be ready to return. Steven Stamkos, who has been cleared for contact and took part in his first full practice with the team on Friday, also can’t be ruled out, although Namestnikov is a more likely candidate to be back in the lineup.

There is no indication that either Tyler Johnson or Cedric Paquette, both out since March 9, are ready to get back on the ice, though both have been seen around the locker room walking under their own power.

No matter the situation regarding who may or may not be ready to return, the two days off between games is a welcome break for a team that has been pushing hard for the past six weeks.

”Hopefully it can help take our minds off hockey a little bit here,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “We talk about the physical drains of playing a full NHL season, and you see how banged up we are, but I don’t think we talk about the mental strains, especially when we are depending on guys to perform game in and game out. It’s just mentally draining and they have been doing a heckuva job. But we get a break here and it’s much needed.’’

And as much as some look up and claim the sky has fallen after two straight losses, the fact is Tampa Bay only lost two standings points with those consecutive losses. With 11 games left on the schedule, the gap is just two points as they battle with Toronto and New York Islanders.

That’s not the focus, however, for a Lightning team that only wants to look at themselves and nothing else.

”To be honest, you are going to drive yourself crazy if you keep going to the standings and check how did Toronto do, how did the Islanders do, on and on and on,’’ Cooper said. “The bottom line is you have to come to work and pull points out of games because if we don’t get any points out of games there is no sense in looking at the standings. We just have to get points.

“We’ve had a little bit of a tough stretch here, tough travel day and playing some good teams. But now our backs are against the wall and we have to get points out of our next opponent. We weren’t’ going to run the table. We went on an unreal stretch to pull ourselves back in to the race and we are pretty much still in it with a handful of games left. But now we have to start playing.’’

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