Tampa Bay Lightning has taken a break in the upcoming schedule

Tampa Bay Lightning has taken a break in the upcoming schedule

TAMPA, Fla. — Midway through the NHL season, the Tampa Bay Lightning got off to a quick start, finishing first (with the Florida Panthers on 61 points) in the Eastern Conference. But things will slow down.

The Lightning will have a very light schedule for the next month with just eight games from now through the end of February.

“I think it’s a good thing for the whole team to take a break and relax, heal a little bit,” Lightning forward Ondrej Palat said. “The last two months have been crazy. There are so many games. We will need everyone who is in shape for these two months.”

The gap in the schedule was caused by the All-Star hiatus combined with a possible Olympic hiatus. But after the NHL pulled out of the Beijing Winter Olympics, those two weeks are now being used to reschedule games that have been canceled by COVID-19.

“It’s like you don’t worry about things that you can’t control, especially the schedule,” said Lightning forward Alex Killorn. “Schedules have changed behind the scenes so many times that people don’t know about it.”

Just as it became apparent that the Bolts had overcome the COVID troubles, star forward Nikita Kucherov entered the COVID protocols and will be absent for at least five days.

“I’m not worried. I’m not sure what the numbers are. It’s sort of the norm unfortunately,” head coach Jon Cooper said. “People understand, you’re probably gone five days then you come back. It’s unfortunate . If you get it, hope it’s during our break. Hopefully it’s not something that drags the boys down again.”

The Lightning only had three postponed games that had to be rescheduled — the lowest number of make-up games in the league.

The Bolts’ next game is Thursday night against New Jersey at the Amalie Arena.

The post Tampa Bay Lightning has taken a break in the upcoming schedule first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

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