One of the weirdly anticipated steps of the offseason for any team that has exited the playoff race is the releasing of the injury report. After months of vague descriptions of injuries and timelines, teams usually announce exactly was ailing their players. That “lower-body” injury that had a third-line center on a day-to-day basis for a month-and-a-half, or yeah, he was playing without a left kneecap. The “upper-body” injury that kept your power-play specialist out for Game 1? Yup, you guessed it, a missing eyeball.
On Wednesday, during his requiem for the season, general manager Julien BriseBois detailed some of the injuries the Lightning were dealing with at the end of the year. He also mentioned that the players were going through their medical exams, so this might not even be the full list of injuries.
It was no surprise that Luke Glendening was playing with a shoulder issue. Just from the way he went into the boards in that game against Buffalo on the 15th, it was apparent that he had done something fairly bad to his shoulder or arm.
We can also see why a couple of the free agent signings had some issues throughout the year. Tyler Motte missed basically the first month of the season with a broken ankle and you have to wonder how long that lingered. The Motte we saw at the end of the season was definitely a much faster and more involved player than we saw in November.
Playing against a high-powered Panthers offense is tough enough. Doing it with two of your best defensive forwards and the entire right side of the defense at less than a 100% is near impossible.
As for Conor Sheary, he played 37 games after rupturing a tendon in his finger. Which seems like a pretty big deal for a hockey player holding a hockey stick all night long. It was a bit of a lost year for the 31-year-old, and this was likely a factor that contributed to the struggles. Mr. BriseBois did mention that Sheary will see a hand specialist to see if surgery is needed. If he can come back fully healthy next season, perhaps that will aid in the Lightning’s depth.
From my fifty seconds of research on AC joint sprains, the severity of the sprain is a big factor in how long rehab will take. If it’s not too bad, a six-week recovery doesn’t seem to be out of reach which should put Nick Perbix and Erik Cernak at close to full strength in the middle of June. If the sprains are bad, they might require surgery. Anthony Cirelli missed the start of the 2022-23 season following surgery in the prior summer.
As for Jonas Johansson, the quad tear is also something that Lightning fans are familiar with as it was just two years ago that Brayden Point tore his quad in the first round of the playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was ready to go for the next training camp and has looked no worse for the wear. However, even if it doesn’t require any type of surgical repair, the pressure put on the quad by a goaltender could lead to a rather lengthy rehab process.
Every team releases a report like this when their season ends, and the injuries are by no means an excuse for why the Lightning lost to the Florida Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. They do, however, often show how little we as fans know about what players are dealing with just to get onto the ice, let alone perform in a high-pressure situation.
