Raw Charge
Summary
The Tampa Bay Lightning welcomed back Yanni Gourde from injury in their 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night. Unfortunately, just as quickly they were down another forward as Brayden Point left the game with about six minutes to go in the first period and didn’t return. After the game, Coach Jon Cooper didn’t have much information, but what he did tell reporters wasn’t promising, “Hopefully it’s not too serious, but unfortunately he might miss some time.” Point took six shifts in the first period with the last one lasting 34 seconds. There was no apparent injury on the play as he was part of a Lightning rush into the Winnipeg zone, but he left for a line change with the puck still in the zone. On his previous shift, which was about two minutes earlier, he looked his normal self, skating up and down the ice with apparent ease. It would be an unfortunate time for Point to be out of the line-up, both for the team and for the forward. The Lightning have a tough stretch of games coming up, including another set of back-to-back games later this week. Among the Bolts upcoming opponents are Buffalo (twice), Washington, Edmonton, and Carolina. Tampa Bay could use the services of their top center for each and every one of those contests. As for Point, the 30-year-old forward was looking like his old self after injuries had stymied his play last season. He has posted 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in 16 games and eclipsed the 700-point mark for his career in his last game. Evolving Hockey has him at 6,03 iXG on the season, third on the team behind Brandon Hagel and Jake Guentzel. Meanwhile Natural Stat Trick has him second on the team with 61 individual scoring chances and 29 individual high-danger chances. The goals took awhile to start showing up, but Point has been generating chances all night long. The biggest issue is that the Lightning will have to completely re-organize their lines if Point is going to miss significant time. He had settled into a role with Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel. That trio had been on the ice for an 8-2 goal advantage and had controlled 56.98% of the scoring chances. It’s likely that Kucherov will go back to a line with Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli, but who will step up to play with Jake Guentzel will have to be determined. It’s possible it will be Gourde, but Conor Geekie’s play of late might earn him a look at a higher spot in the line-up. The Bolts are heading back to Tampa and don’t play again until Wednesday when they resume the road trip in Buffalo. By then, a better idea of Brayden Point’s status should be known. If he is out for some time, then, much like last season, they’ll have to have another player step up. Could it be Dominic James? Or maybe Jakob Pelletier gets a look.