The Tampa Bay Lightning have dealt with a few injuries to their blueline so far this season. The good news is that the time missed by Erik Cernak and Jan Rutta hasn’t been too lengthy. Hopefully, the same can be said for their latest dalliance with the injury bug. In Sunday’s game against the Florida Panthers, Ryan McDonagh left the game in the first period with a suspected lower-body injury and didn’t return.
After the game, Coach Jon Cooper didn’t have an update on the the status of his veteran defender, so plunging into a panic about him missing a significant amount of time is a bit premature at this point.