Lightning Struck With Injuries

A real test for the Tampa Bay Lightning is upcoming, as on Thursday morning, they announced that three of their regular roster members are hurt and will be out for an extended period of time each, two of them happen to be members of pool teams.

Forwards Cedric Paquette and Ondrej Palat and non-pool defenseman Braydon Coburn were all included in the release and Coburn was the worst hit, as he is expected to miss the next six weeks with a lower-body injury.

Paquette was the least affected with the injury news, as he is expected to miss the next 10-to-14 days with an upper-body injury.  Of course, being as close to the playoffs as we are, we're not going to see many details from the Lightning, which has been par for the course, over the last few years.

In the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft, Paquette was taken by Grant K., but the hot streak that he was on before the draft quickly cooled and Grant has only managed to pick up 2 points in 11 games collected from the forward.

Palat, on the other hand, will miss the next 2-to-3 weeks with the lower-body injury that he suffered earlier this week.  Of course, the nature of Palat's injury was not disclosed either, but this is a pretty big loss to the Tampa lineup, as he has been good for them this season.

The 23-year old Czech has also been quite good for Wes, who is taking a kicking in this week's action, yet to pick-up a point and has now seen his gap to 4th place drop down to 15 points.  Wes' projected games has also dropped a bit this week, so he won't have as many chances to redeem himself before Sunday.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.