The Tampa Bay Lightning announced the team will be without second-line center Anthony Cirelli for a while as he will be out week-to-week with an upper-body injury. That’s a tough blow for a team that recently lost Steven Stamkos, who was put on the COVID Protocol list Friday.
Cirelli went down during the middle of the third period Thursday against the Florida Panthers and never returned. The injury didn’t look good and head coach Jon Cooper said at the time that “it didn’t look great when he came off.”
The forward has played well for the Lightning this season with four goals and 10 points in 12 games so far this year. He had 16 goals and 44 points last season in 68 games and was fourth in voting for the Selke Trophy. He is a top penalty killer for the team, another blow that the Lightning will have to deal with.
The team for now, is expected to promote Tyler Johnson to center the second line alongside both Mathieu Joseph and Blake Coleman, while Alex Killorn is penciled onto the first line to replace Stamkos.
Of course, the team is already without Nikita Kucherov (hip) and center Mitchell Stephens (lower-body injury). Both are out indefinitely.