Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper was asked by Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times if Zemgus Girgensons could be considered week-to-week, and Cooper confirmed Encina’s suspicions, saying it is “probably a semi-safe assessment of where he’s at right now”.
The 31-year-old Latvian forward was injured in Saturday’s preseason tilt vs Florida, a game which caught the league’s attention with over 300 penalty minutes combined between the rivals. The Lightning actually faced fines and a hearing with the Department of Player Safety for the festivities that occurred throughout the game.
Girgensons will miss his first regular season game as a Bolt, having appeared in all 82 games last season, netting 6 points in a largely shutdown role.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Chicago Head Coach Jeff Blashill says Alex Vlasic is all set to play tomorrow, as confirmed by Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. Vlasic was absent in the 2025-26 NHL season opener due to a lower-body injury, as the Blackhawks fell to Florida. Having broken out last season with 30 points, the Blackhawks will be glad to welcome the young Illinois native back to the lineup.
- The Anaheim Ducks announced today that dependable center Ryan Strome will miss the team’s upcoming road trip due to an upper-body injury, which was previously under wraps. The 32-year-old veteran has only missed three regular season games in his first three seasons with the Ducks, twice being an all-82-game player. Strome has flashed remarkable consistency, netting 41 points exactly in each campaign. Based on the Ducks’ statement, he is set to miss games in Seattle and San Jose, but perhaps could return for the home opener against Pittsburgh next Tuesday.
Strome is a solid 3rd Right Wing.
Disgusting that Verhagee did not receive supplemental discipline for deliberately hurting him.
Waa waa waa
i’m not a lightning fan but this situation with floridas goons running around unscathed is a big problem for the whole league. They are going to hurt more players from other teams and then the DoPS is gonna fine and suspend players from other teams for retaliation. Verhaege and Greer must be punished severely for their actions with long suspensions. What do you expect other teams to do? The league is a JOKE. The league expects other teams to ice their 1st squad so they can get run into the boards from behind and sucker punched into LTIR? The DoPS is not a real job the ppl who “work” there are cLoWnS. I say bring up all your goons and ice them in a game against Florida just like Coops did it. Make it a complete bull so the league has to do smth about it
Did you even watch that game? All of the things you mentioned were the things Tampa did. I don’t think the fines and suspensions were enough. Tampa went out with the organizational order to try and hurt Panther players. You may not like it but you have never seen a situation where the Panthers tried to deliberately injure players. This was just sour grapes from Tampa
Can you even read?
Hawks definitely missed Vlasic last night. Vlasic and Rinzel should make a great #1 pairing for a long time.