These Are The Battle Wounds The Lightning Suffered In The Playoffs
It’s no surprise that our Tampa Bay Lightning were battling through some pretty serious injuries in the final this year. You don’t make it that far in the playoffs without suffering from some bumps and bruises, but these injuries that our guys played through seemed more intense than that. The Lightning had a press conference today and general manager Julien BriseBois disclosed all the injuries that the Bolts battled through.
Injuries coming out of todays exit interviews
— Lightning Insider (@Erik_Erlendsson) June 28, 2022
McDonagh - mangled finger in ECF
Cirelli - both shoulders
Hagel / fractured foot
Bellemare - meniscus before playoffs
Paul - MCL sprain in Final
Kucherov - MCL sprain in Final
Perry - shoulder joint sprain in ECF#GoBolts
We knew something was seriously wrong with Brayden Point after losing him in Game 7 of the Toronto series. It was announced today that Point suffered a “significant” tear in his quad muscle, which caused him to miss the rest of the playoffs other than his appearance in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. His timeline, according to the Lightning, will see him recover in a “few weeks.” However the same could not be said for forward Anthony Cirelli. BriseBois mentioned that Cirelli is going to need surgery due to a shoulder AC joint sprain he suffered in the New York series, then had the other shoulder dislocated in Avs series. Corey Perry also had a shoulder AC joint sprain but is not expecting the need for surgery.
Nikita Kucherov and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare were battling through a meniscus injury, but are likely to recover. Brandon Hagel had a foot fracture in Florida series and spent 9 days in a compression boot before coming back in the series against the Rangers. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh had “mangled” finger after blocking shot in Rangers series and forward Nick Paul had a shoulder AC joint sprain and MCL sprain.
That’s eight players (that we know of) that played through the toughest periods of hockey under crazy circumstances. It wouldn’t be shocking to hear more injury statuses released from players like Victor Hedman or Erik Cernak, who was constantly rotating on and off the ice after blocking so many shots. These injuries are also by no means an excuse for our team losing the Stanley Cup Final, but rather an understanding of how hard they worked to be there.
