Peter Budaj leaves with injury, how it affects Tampa Bay Lightning in goal moving forward

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 29, 2017

TAMPA – The Lightning look as if they will be short a goaltender for at least the short term.

Peter Budaj left Friday’s game against Philadelphia with an apparent left leg injury after he was clipped from behind by Flyers’ forward Scott Laughton. The collision appeared to result in Budaj’s left leg getting caught under Laughton as he came sliding in from the blind side.

{mprestriction ids=”1,2″}

There did not appear to be any intent on the play as Laughton got tangled up with Victor Hedman near the back post. As Budaj was getting set up in position to try to make a save is when the collision occurred.

Budaj had to be helped off the ice and was unable to put any weight on his left leg as he made his way to the bench. Head coach Jon Cooper did not have a definitive update on Budaj’s status after the game.

”We’re re-evaluating right now, but we might have to call someone up,’’ Cooper said. “We’ll see a little later.’’

Update 12/31 Budaj is listed as week-to-week by the team while Louis Domingue was called up from Syracuse. See more below

Budaj was making just his seventh start of the season in the team’s 37th game as Andrei Vasilevskiy took the lion’s share of the starts this season while enjoying a Vezina Trophy type season to this point.

Budaj, meanwhile, admittedly struggled at times with the long periods of time between starts. But though his numbers didn’t show it, he was starting to play better, making some key saves at key moments. He was playing well again on Friday, even though the stat sheet said he allowed four goals and took the loss. Each of the four goals scored against him came from within five feet of the blue paint.

But the Lightning schedule was about to get a bit more condensed as the Lightning are in the midst of seven games in 11 days that started on Dec. 28 and runs through Jan. 7 when the team concludes a five-game road trip.

”We’ll see, hopefully he’s going to be OK,’’ Cooper said.

Budaj did appear back on the Tampa Bay bench toward the end of the game, but Cooper said Budaj was being supportive.

That’s the kind of teammate he is,’’ Cooper said.If Budaj is going to miss any sort of time, the Lightning have just two other goaltenders playing with Syracuse in the American Hockey League – Louis Domingue and first-year pro Connor Ingram.

Domingue is the most likely candidate to get the call. The 25-year-old was acquired from Arizona on Nov. 14 in exchange for forward Tye McGinn and goaltender Michael Leighton. Domingue has 84 games of NHL experience, all with the Coyotes after he was selected in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound netminder is 27-41-7 in 71 career starts with a 3.00 goals against and .906 save percentage. He lost his backup job with the Coyotes this season after posting an 0-6 record with a 4.33 GAA and .856 save percentage in seven games as Arizona had a rough start to the year.

Since being acquired by Tampa Bay, he has been the No. 1 with Syracuse and helped stabilize the Crunch goaltending situation with a 9-4 record, 2.39 GAA and .911 save percentage. Domingue has helped pull Syracuse back in to playoff contention after a slow start, helping trigger a 10-game winning streak earlier this month as the Crunch are now third in the North Division standings.

Ingram, meanwhile, has appeared in 11 games, posting a 4-5 record with one shutout, 3.10 GAA and a .885 save percentage.

The team is off on Saturday as they head to Columbus for a New Year’s Eve game so an update may not be available until Sunday. Tampa Bay currently has an open spot on the roster and would not require any move to make room for a callup, so it’s a safe bet they will have another goaltender meeting them in Columbus before facing the Blue Jackets.

{/mprestriction}