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The defending Eastern Conference champions are a hurting unit right now. Injuries upon injuries are adding up.
Bad news for the Tampa Lightning as winger Ondrej Palat is now out for the next 3-5 weeks with a lower body (leg) injury.
Palat was injured in a collision in Minnesota on Saturday night.
Jonathon Drouin will be taking Palat's place in the Lightning lineup.
Bolts head coach Jon Cooperating said Monday morning that forward Cedric Paquette and D Anton Stralman may also miss the Bolts-Sabres game in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.
The eighth place Bolts (7-7-2) lead the Sabres (6-8) by just four points in the Eastern Conference playoffs race.
The Sabres are playing with a ton of skill, structure and swagger right now. Jack Eichel and his teammates will definitely give the Bolts everything they can handle on Tuesday night.
The Sabres defeated the Canucks Saturday afternoon and are looking to knock off the Bolts for the first time in four tries this season.
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Wondering why we haven't seen any early season trades in the nhl in the early stages of the 2015-16 season?
It's a matter of economics. There are more “have nots… than “haves… in terms of available salary cap space right now in the NHL.
Did you know that a combined 15 NHL teams either have players on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) or are within $1 million of the NHL salary cap.
Very few NHL GMs have the ability to add salary to their tight budgets.
Ask any NHL GM, assistant general manager, or player personnel director if he has a list of players that he would like to trade away for players on your shopping list.
To a man, the answer would be a resounding “Yes….
That's all well and good.
The problem being is that NHL teams are shopping for players who can help them win this season. The NHL trade market is wacky right now. Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher told the Tampa Times that he has assessed the market, and that he sees that two trends that are preventing trades around the NHL:
15 teams either have players on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) or are within $1 million of the NHL salary cap.
The cold hard truth is that not many NHL GMs are able to take on more salary at this time of year. The majority of NHL GM are talking about trades with their peer group to set the table for trades that they would like to execute.
For example, Tampa GM Steve Yzerman has reportedly been actively shopping veteran D Matt Carle, Carle. 31, still has a ton of tread left on his tires. Decent player. Bad contract. Lots of tire kickers, not many trade partners. Unless Yzerman is willing to eat up to 50% of Carle's $5.5 million annual contract. Not likely. So, Carle sits and waits until his contract reduces with each passing month of this season.
Carle currently is the highest paid blue liner in Tampa. Carle earns $5.5 million this season. Ditto for the next two seasons. Can played Saturday in Minneapolis when the Bolts met the Wild. He had been a health scratch in two of his past four games before Saturday. Carle has lost the trust of Cooper. Younger players have risen above Carle on the defensive depth chart. Carle cannot crack the starting six rotation and has also become a resource drain on Steve Yzerman's. In year's past, Carle might have been traded by niow. However, no other NHL Gms want to throw Yzerman a bone by taking a bad contract off his hands so that he can reshape his roster for another run to the Eastren Conference Finals at the end of this season. the Lightning have $1.2 million in available salary cap space this season.
Fletcher's take:
"It's hard to make trades at the best of times because you're trying to find a team that has what you need and they need to need what you have," Fletcher said. "That's hard enough, never mind balancing out the dollars. But now it has to be a dollar-for-dollar trade as well. "Some of the teams that are well below the cap are budget teams and are probably at their number even if they're not at the cap. So as the season goes on and more of the salaries and dollars get paid, it gets a little bit easier. But you have to be very creative this time of year."
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Stop me if you have heard thi sone before.
The Buffalo Sabres will play the Tampa Lightning on Tuesday night in the city by the bay.
Tuesday night will mark the 15th game on the Buffalo season. Four of those games will have been played against Steven Stamkos and the Bolts. The Sabres and Bolts won't play again unbtil after Tuesday night. Their season series will end on November 10.
The Lightning got good news and bad news on Saturday when winger Jonathan Drouin returned to the Bolts lineup after missing five games with a lower-body injury.
One door opened while another closed. Winger Ondrej Palat suffered a lower-body injury in the second period against the Wild he did not return to the game. The injury is looking like it will be a long term ailment that will keep Palat out of the starting lineup for a period of time.
Wild wing Nino Niederreiter fell after a scramble in Tampa territory. He landed awkwardly on Palat's lower left leg. Palat had trouble sakting off the ice to the Bolts' room. Bolts head coach Jon Cooper said there was concern the injury could be more than day to day.