Devils game postponed due to COVID-19
TAMPA — The Tampa Bay Lightning’s next scheduled game for Monday in New Jersey has been postponed because of COVID-related issues with the Devils, the league announced Sunday.
A new date for the game has yet to be determined. For now it takes away the front end of back-to-back road games for the Lightning to begin this week.
The Lightning planned to fly to New Jersey today for Monday’s game, then travel to Buffalo after the game. Instead the team will fly to Buffalo today and likely practice there Monday in preparation for Tuesday’s game.
New Jersey played its last game Saturday night against Columbus with just 11 available forwards because of a string of players entering COVID protocol on both the Devils’ and AHL team’s rosters. On Sunday, forward Janne Kuokkanen and Damon Severson entered protocol.
After not losing a player to COVID for the season’s first 11 weeks, the Lightning have seen nine players and three coaches enter protocol over the past three weeks, a stretch that included sudden departures, roster shuffling and uncertain return timetables.
The Lightning currently have just one player in protocol, forward Ross Colton, but Lightning coach Jon Cooper was optimistic that he would return to the active roster in the coming days after fulfilling his five-day isolation period.
This is the third Lightning road game to be postponed, all because of COVID issues with their opponent. Makeup days for their games Dec. 19 at Colorado and Dec. 23 at Arizona have yet to be announced.
When the Lightning’s game in Colorado was postponed, players were already boarding the team charter flight to Denver.
The postponement could help the Lightning on the injury front. Had the Lightning played Monday as scheduled, they would have had nine games over a 15-day span.
Top defenseman Ryan McDonagh missed Saturday’s 5-2 home loss to Boston with a lowerbody injury after taking a blocked shot in the right leg and is listed day-today. Defenseman Zach Bogosian has returned to the ice from a lowerbody injury.
More than 100 games have been postponed so far, and the NHL has already pulled players out of next month’s Winter Olympics to help make up games over the three-week break that was created to allow players to participate in the Beijing Games.