The Lightning have lost four straight games, but you’ll never find panic in the room. At their best this season, they clamped down defensively and got contributions from all four lines to overwhelm top opponents. A string of injuries has left the team relying on an 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup, with some of the Lightning’s top forwards double-shifting to fill the gaps. The team has found itself in this position a few times throughout the season.
On Tuesday, rookie center Dominic James underwent surgery for a lower-body injury. The 23-year-old is expected to miss 8–10 weeks, sidelining him for the remainder of the regular season, with a projected return in early to mid-May.
James recently started to make an impact in the faceoff circle, going 17-for-23 over his last two games. If the Lightning have had a dip this season, it has been in the faceoff circle. James is one of just two players on the roster to win more than 50 percent of his draws, joining Nick Paul, who is also currently on injured reserve.
In January, at his mid-season availability, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois called faceoffs an area the team needed to improve on, but said he was confident in the players currently on the roster.
“Face-offs are not all created equal; some are more important than others in the scope of trying to win hockey games,” BriseBois said. “That being said, in terms of bringing someone in, I think pretty much all of our players are underperforming their career averages right now, so I think organically we can get back to performing better in that area of the game just with the players we have now. So it’s an area that we need to get better at.”
The same night James went down, the Lightning also lost forward Gage Goncalves, who is considered day-to-day, leading to the recall of Conor Geekie from AHL Syracuse.
In regards to Friday’s NHL trade deadline, BriseBois has never been shy on ways to improve the team.
“Are we going to be looking at options to get better? We are,” BriseBois said.
An added challenge is that the string of injuries has fully tied up the Lightning’s cap space, which BriseBois noted is usually the case.
“We’re always on the lookout for ways to improve our team. And just as in years past, we’re not only focused on this year, we’re focused on future years as well,” he said. “So if we can do something that increases our odds of winning the Cup either this year or down the road, obviously we’re going to be excited to do that.”
Whether or not the Lightning will make a move remains to be seen. It's been reported they are in the mix, but it won't come cheap. The NHL trade deadline is set for Friday at 3 p.m. ET.