When the Tampa Bay Lightning play the New York Islanders in Elmont, New York, on Thursday night, they won’t have much time to recover from a possibly critical injury.
Due to a left leg injury, Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev was stretchered off during the Lightning’s 3-1 road loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday.
With around 13 minutes remaining in the second half, Sergachev attempted a hit on Rangers left winger Alexis Lafreniere, but Lafreniere retaliated, catching Sergachev’s leg and causing him to fall.
Due to a leg ailment, Sergachev missed 17 games before making his comeback on Wednesday.
Jon Cooper, the coach of Tampa Bay, stated, “That was terrible—it was terrible.” “I’m very sorry for him. Our crew was obviously impacted for a short while. Those are difficult ones.”
Regarding the injury, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos continued, saying, “You feel sick to your stomach.” It’s evident that Sergey has worked very hard to recover from his initial injuries, so it’s difficult to watch something so horrible happen to someone who has experienced that. difficult to watch.”
The Lightning will attempt to return their focus to the rivalry with the Islanders, as the teams engaged in two taut battles in the NHL semifinals during the pandemic-shortened seasons.
In the shorter term, the Islanders and Lightning are bonded by their small margins as they try to get into position to again mount another deep playoff run.
The Islanders have been off since Monday, when they returned from the All-Star break with a 3-2 win over the host Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Islanders, who haven’t won a playoff series since their consecutive trips to the NHL’s final four in 2020 and ’21, are four points behind the third-place Philadelphia Flyers in the Metropolitan Division as well as four points behind the Detroit Red Wings, who occupy the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
New York is 2-2-1 under Patrick Roy, who replaced the fired Lane Lambert as head coach on Jan. 20. Each of the five games has been decided by one goal.
The Islanders squandered a pair of one-goal leads Monday and appeared headed for another overtime — they lead the NHL with 18 games decided beyond regulation — before Pierre Engvall scored the game-winner with 2:02 remaining to give New York a three-game season sweep of the Maple Leafs.
“Out of the break, you want to start strong,” Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said following his return from a 24-game absence caused by a lower-body injury. “We know that we’re going to have to put some points together to get into the playoffs. (Monday) was the first step in doing that.”
The Lightning — who won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 before falling to the Colorado Avalanche in the finals in 2022 and losing to the Maple Leafs in the first round last spring — slipped from third place in the Atlantic Division into the East’s top wild-card spot on Wednesday. While Tampa Bay was falling to the Rangers, Toronto was registering a 5-4 win over the Dallas Stars.
Tampa Bay is five points ahead of the ninth-place Islanders in the conference standings. The two teams will play three times in the next seven weeks.
The Lightning showed some signs of rust on Wednesday as they had their three-game winning streak snapped. Tampa Bay, playing its first game since Jan. 27, collected just 19 shots — its third-lowest total of the season — and couldn’t climb out of a 2-0, second-period hole.
“They had a little bit more in the tank than we did at the end,” Cooper said. “They just made a couple more plays that we couldn’t make. I thought we got a little bit tired as that game went on.”
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