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Erik Cernak

Evening Notes: Cernak, Sandin, Walker

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The Lightning were without defenseman Erik Černák in tonight’s match against the Islanders after he missed a team meeting, per Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. He’s been healthy scratched as a result, as is common practice. His absence paved the way for Haydn Fleury, who’s missed six games with a lower-body injury, to return to the lineup in a second-pairing role alongside trade deadline pickup Mathew Dumba. Černák, 26, has remained solidly in a top-four role and has been leaned on heavily this season in the absence of Mikhail Sergachev, who’s been limited to 34 games with multiple significant injuries. In the first season of an eight-year, $41.6MM extension signed back in July 2022, the Slovak blue-liner has 11 points and is averaging 19:21 per game through 60 appearances. It’s been a down season defensively for the normally steady shutdown man, posting a career-worst 47.1 CF% at even strength and a -4.7 expected rating.

More updates as we head into the weekend:

  • Another Eastern Conference wild-card hopeful is short a defenseman tonight. The Capitals didn’t have Rasmus Sandin available against the Bruins tonight due to a lower-body injury, per the team. As a result, 21-year-old Vincent Iorio made his season debut after being recalled from AHL Hershey on Wednesday. Sandin, 24, had a difficult stretch to begin the season but has improved as the campaign progresses, now up to 20 assists and 23 points in 64 games while averaging over 21 minutes a night. While his possession numbers have been rather pedestrian, and he won’t reach last year’s career-high 35 points, this is his first season in an everyday top-four role, and some growing pains were to be expected. Washington inked the 2018 first-round pick of the Maple Leafs to a five-year, $23MM extension earlier this month.
  • Avalanche blue-liner Sean Walker sustained an upper-body injury in tonight’s comeback win over the Predators, head coach Jared Bednar told reporters postgame (via Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). The 29-year-old came over from the Flyers via trade earlier this month, with Ryan Johansen and a first-round pick heading the other way. He’s been promising through nine games in Colorado, scoring three goals and adding an assist while continuing to control possession quality well at even strength. Expected to anchor the Avs’ third pairing in the postseason behind Cale Makar and Samuel Girard, an extended absence while he grows chemistry with his new teammates isn’t ideal. It’s unclear how long Colorado expects him out of the lineup, if at all.

Tampa Bay Lightning Injury Updates

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Earlier this morning, beat writer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chris Krenn reported that forward Tanner Jeannot and defenseman Erik Cernak were trending towards playing tomorrow for the Lightning. Outside of defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, the return of Jeannot and Cernak will give Tampa Bay a completed lineup as they look to hold onto their spot in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.

Not only will the Lightning be expecting continued health from Jeannot, but they will also be expecting an improvement in his play. Acquired at last year’s trade deadline from the Nashville Predators for a package including a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Jeannot has certainly not lived up to the lofty price that Tampa Bay had to pay.

Showing an ability to be a bruising forward with a legitimate capability to score goals during his time with the Predators, the Lightning have not received a similar version of that player. In now 62 games spent with Tampa Bay, Jeannot has only mustered a mediocre six goals and 12 points over his tenure.

Now confined to a fourth-line role in Florida, Jeannot will need to do much more than throw hits if the Lightning are planning on being successful in this year’s playoffs. There is an obvious need for physicality come playoff time, but depth scoring will become a tremendous necessity for Tampa Bay moving forward.

On the other side of the injury update, Cernak has been out since the team’s recent game against the Philadelphia Flyers with a lower-body injury. In 53 games for the Lightning this year, Cernak has scored one goal and nine points while averaging over 19 minutes of ice time a night.

Mikhail Sergachev And Erik Cernak Will Play Tonight

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Tampa Bay Lightning beat writer Chris Krenn is reporting that Lightning defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak will dress tonight when the team takes on the New York Rangers. Both players have been out for extended periods of time as the Lightning have dealt with injuries to key contributors throughout the first half of the season.

Cernak has been out since January 11th with an upper-body injury and has missed seven games. He was knocked out of action after taking a hit from New Jersey Devils’ forward Nathan Bastian in what was the third instance of Cernak being knocked out of action due to a hit in less than a year. Cernak was also injured after a Josh Anderson hit knocked him out of action for three games back on December 31st. Most famously, Cernak was hit in last year’s NHL playoffs by then Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting, the hit knocked Cernak out of the playoffs and earned Bunting a three-game suspension.

This year Cernak has five assists in 39 games and is averaging just over 19 minutes a game in ice-time.

Sergachev has been out of the Lightning lineup since December 21st, a period of 17 games. The 25-year-old has been activated off the long-term injured reserve and will dress tonight. The former ninth overall pick in 2016 has two goals and 17 assists in 33 games this year while he has averaged almost 23 minutes of ice time per game. He was struggling before his injury after posting career-best numbers last year.

There is a possibility that Tampa Bay will elect to pair Sergachev and Cernak together on the Lightning’s second defensive pairing as the duo have practiced together in recent days.

Atlantic Notes: Reaves, Rafferty, Lightning

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Maple Leafs winger Ryan Reaves has been on injured reserve for more than a month now with a knee injury.  However, he told Sportsnet’s Luke Fox that he has been ready to return for a couple of weeks and he has simply been scratched for that time.  The 37-year-old is in the first season of a three-year, $4.05MM contract signed back in July and things haven’t gone as planned with the veteran struggling when he was in the lineup to the point of being healthy scratched at times before the injury.  Reaves noted that he’ll need to “stay patient to get in the lineup — or stay patient for whatever else is going to come” but clearly, his comments suggest that patience is starting to wear a little thin if he has indeed been ready to come back for the last two weeks.

More from the Atlantic:

  • Before their game against Tampa Bay, the Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Brogan Rafferty from AHL Grand Rapids. It’s the second recall of the month for the 28-year-old although he didn’t see any NHL action in his first stint and barring injuries, it’s unlikely he’ll suit up much if at all this time around.  Rafferty is in his first season with Detroit’s farm team after signing a two-year, two-way contract back in July.  In 35 games so far with the Griffins, he has 15 points.
  • The only injured Lightning player who could return before the All-Star break is defenseman Erik Cernak, relays Eduardo A. Encina of The Athletic (Twitter link). Cernak has missed a little more than a week with an upper-body injury but it appears he has a chance to come back in their final three games.  Meanwhile, Encina adds that winger Tanner Jeannot remains listed as week-to-week while blueliners Mikhail Sergachev and Haydn Fleury – both currently on LTIR – could return after the break.

Erik Cernak Day-To-Day, Lightning Recall Maxwell Crozier

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that they’ve recalled right-shot defenseman Maxwell Crozier from their AHL affiliate the Syracuse Crunch after the team told Lightning reporter Chris Krenn that defenseman Erik Cernak is day-to-day. The 23-year-old Crozier was originally drafted by the Lightning in the fourth round of the 2019 NHL entry draft and is looking to make his NHL debut should he get into the lineup during his recall.

The Calgary, Alberta native played his college hockey at Providence College prior to being drafted and is in his first full season in the AHL. He wrapped up his NCAA career just last season and did sneak in nine games with the Crunch towards the end of the year, notching three assists. In 24 AHL games this year, Crozier has a goal and six assists and is +5.

Crozier’s recall comes one day after Lightning defenseman Cernak was forced to leave a game due to an upper-body injury. Cernak has dealt with injury woes on several occasions over the past year and was only in his second game back from another upper body injury that he suffered on December 31st against the Montreal Canadiens. Cernak missed four games with that injury.

The 26-year-old has five assists in 39 games this season and was a huge part of their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021.

Atlantic Notes: Woll, Cernak, Zub

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One of the most oft-used members of the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie carousel, Joseph Woll has found himself on the team’s injured reserve for a month, suffering from a high ankle sprain on December 8th. In some positive news for the organization, David Alter of The Hockey News reports that Woll was back on the ice this morning, although under limited movement and intensity.

To push back on the idea that Woll may be close to returning after being seen at practice, in a follow-up report, Alter indicated that Woll was still “a ways away” and that there is still no concrete timeline for his return. In the meantime, the Maple Leafs will continue to roll with the combination of Martin Jones and Dennis Hildeby, as the latter is still looking to make his NHL debut in the crease.

Fortunately for Toronto, even with the injury to Woll, and the unfortunate demise of Ilya Samsonov between the pipes, they have received incredible play from Jones, who has produced some of the better goaltending numbers across the league in the last month. Making his initial debut with the Maple Leafs on December 7th, Jones has produced a 7-3-0 record in his last 11 games, carrying a .932 save percentage in the process.

Other Atlantic notes:

  • In their matchup tonight against the Los Angeles Kings, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be welcoming back defenseman Erik Cernak, according to Eduardo Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. Cernak has missed the last three games for the Lightning, suffering an upper-body injury on the team’s New Year’s Eve game against the Montreal Canadiens. Primarily a shutdown defenseman, Cernak has skated in 37 games for Tampa Bay so far this season, tallying five assists in an approximate average of 19 and a half minutes of ice time per night.
  • Interim head coach of the Ottawa Senators, Jacques Martin, called defenseman Artem Zub a game-time decision tonight against the Calgary Flames, as Zub has been dealing with an illness since Monday (X Link). Although missing a few games earlier in the year, Zub has been quite productive for the Senators this season, scoring three goals and 11 points in 28 games, which places him third in total scoring in Ottawa amongst defensemen.

Snapshots: Flames, Three Stars, Lightning

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The Fourth Period is reporting that the Calgary Flames picked up trade talks with several teams last week as they look to potentially move on from several pending unrestricted free agents. The Fourth Period cited sources saying that the New Jersey Devils were one of the teams they talked to and even linked the Devils to both Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev.

The Flames currently have a record of 15-16-5 through their first 36 games which puts them five points out of a playoff spot as they near the halfway point of the regular season. The team will have a big decision to make in the coming weeks as they also have center Elias Lindholm on an expiring contract, and he is reportedly looking for a deal in the range of $9MM annually.

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta also believes that teams have expressed interest in Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, but it’s hard to believe Calgary would deal him given that he is in the first year of an eight-year contract and has a full no-trade clause.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The NHL has announced its Three Stars of the Month, with Nathan MacKinnon taking First Star, Auston Matthews winning Second Star, and Connor Hellebuyck being named Third Star. MacKinnon won on the heels of an 11-goal, 29-point performance in 15 games in December, while Matthew’s put up 15 goals and six assists in just 12 games. Hellebuyck’s December performance saw him post an impressive 7-0-2 record, which was good enough for a Third Star.
  • Tampa Bay Lightning writer Chris Krenn is reporting that the Lightning were forced to dress just five defensemen tonight due to injuries and salary cap constraints. The Lightning lost Erik Cernak and Haydn Fleury recently to injury and with no cap space to make a recall, the Lightning were forced to play the Winnipeg Jets one defender short of a full six. The Lightning will be eligible to make an emergency recall after tonight, but due to the language in the Roster Emergency Exception rule, they must wait until the second game to be eligible to recall a player under emergency conditions.

East Notes: Samsonov, Meier, Cernak, Fleury

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Having just cleared waivers yesterday, questions immediately sprouted concerning Ilya Samsonov, and how the Toronto Maple Leafs plan to deal with the struggling goaltender. Now rostered with the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, Jonas Siegel of The Athletic shed a bit more light on the issue this afternoon.

Speaking with the General Manager of the Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving, it does not appear that Samsonov will play nor practice with the Marlies this week, as Treliving is quoted as saying, “It’s a physical and a mental reset where can he get away from preparing for the next game and all the pressures that come with it”.

Although a bold action to take near the middle of the season, Toronto is seemingly running out of ideas on how to maximize Samsonov’s play between the pipes. In what is shaping to be the worst statistical output of his career, Samsonov holds a 5-2-6 record in 15 games, carrying a dismal .862 SV% and a 3.94 GAA.

Other notes:

  • Experiencing plenty of injury concerns from multiple significant players this season, the New Jersey Devils will be without forward Timo Meier for an undisclosed amount of time, as he is dealing with a mid-body injury according to team reporter, Amanda Stein. Stein indicates that it is not a re-aggravation of any of Meier’s previous injury concerns this season, something he has been seemingly battling for much of the regular season.
  • Taking a hit to their defensive core, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be without Erik Cernak on a day-to-day basis, while Haydn Fleury will be on more of a week-to-week timeline (X Link). In all fairness to Fleury, Cernak is the more significant defenseman to miss time, as he has blossomed into one of the better shutdown defensemen in the NHL with Tampa Bay. Averaging over 19 minutes of ice time per game, Cernak holds a 90.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength this season.

Lightning Send Philippe Myers To AHL

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Fresh off re-calling Haydn Fleury from his conditioning assignment in the AHL the Tampa Bay Lightning announced today that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Philippe Myers to their AHL affiliate the Syracuse Crunch. Myers had been on the Lightning’s NHL roster since November 9th and only made his regular season debut with the team last night against the St. Louis Blues. The 26-year-old played 15:32 in last night’s game registering two shots on goal.

Myers was with Syracuse for the first month of the season and dressed in nine games for the Crunch. He registered two assists and was +7. This is the third consecutive year that Myers has seen significant time in the minors having played a total of 77 AHL games combined over the past three seasons. Despite so much time in the AHL, Myers has continued to collect NHL salaries the past three seasons including this one where he is making $1.4MM. Myers came over to the Lightning back in July 2022 in the trade that sent defenseman Ryan McDonagh to the Nashville Predators.

Myers demotion could be a signal that defenseman Erik Cernak is ready to return from a reported concussion. Cernak didn’t play in last night’s game against the Blues but is considered day-to-day currently. If Cernak is able to return to the Lightning lineup he would represent a significant upgrade over Myers on Tampa Bay’s back end. While Cernak is not an offensive juggernaut as evidenced by his three assists in 15 games, he does offer a physical presence having dished out 33 hits already this year.

The Lightning need all of the help they can get at this point as they’ve started the season well below expectations with a 6-6-4 record. While on the surface, it would appear as though they have underwhelmed, but when injuries are factored into the equation the team has done well to weather the storm thus far.

Atlantic Notes: Lightning, Bruins, Lucic, Sabres, Jones

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Before their game tomorrow night against the St.Louis Blues, the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice for practice this morning, with a few notable pieces back on the ice. Lightning beat writer, Chris Krenn, reported that goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was seen back on the ice for practice, as well as forward Nikita Kucherov, who had missed the team’s last game against the Carolina Hurricanes with an illness.

As he works his way back from injury, Tampa Bay is becoming increasingly desperate to have Vasilevskiy return to the crease. In 15 games started between Jonas Johansson and Matt Tomkins, they have procured a 6-5-4 record with a .897 SV% and a 3.42 GAA combined, becoming an area of their game they haven’t had to worry about in several years.

Aside from returners to the ice, the Lightning also had a missing piece, as defenseman Erik Cernak has officially been listed as day-to-day, but could be expected for tomorrow night’s game against the Blues (X Link). In Saturday’s game against the Hurricanes, Cernak left in the second period after only accruing a little under 10 minutes of ice time and did not return to the matchup.

Other notes:

  • In what has become another infamous ’paper’ transaction in the NHL, after sending down both Ian Mitchell and Oskar Steen yesterday, Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal is reporting that the Boston Bruins have recalled both players today. Of the two, Mitchell has been a much better player in terms of production, scoring two points in seven games played, averaging over 14 and a half minutes of ice time per night.
  • Sticking with the Bruins, the head coach of the team, Jim Montgomery, shared that forward Milan Lucic is recovering much slower than expected from his lower-body injury. After eight years away from Boston, Lucic has not played in a game for the Bruins since their October 21st game against the Los Angeles Kings. In only four games played this season, Lucic has tallied two assists for the organization, averaging just a touch under 12 minutes of ice time per game.
  • After being a surprise scratch in the team’s loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, Lance Lysowski reported that forward Peyton Krebs was out of the lineup that night due to a family matter, meaning that Krebs should be expected back either tonight or Friday. One player for Buffalo who will indeed not be in the lineup tonight against Boston is Alex Tuch, as Lysowski also reported that the veteran forward is still out with an upper-body injury, but should be expected back against the Winnipeg Jets later this week.
  • In his first call-up to the NHL since his time with the Seattle Kraken last season, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced goaltender Martin Jones will join the team in Sweden in their upcoming matchup against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday as a part of the NHL’s Global Series. Jones will not be counted against the cap nor the team’s 23-man roster, as in Sweden, the team will not have access to an emergency backup goaltender; meaning Jones will ultimately take that role on in the upcoming trip overseas.

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