The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without one of their top forwards as Tampa Bay Times writer Joe Smith reports that forward Ondrej Palat went back to Tampa for further medical testing and is out indefinitely after being speared by Minnesota Wild’s Jared Spurgeon in the third period of Saturday’s 5-2 loss.
Despite having the best record in the league at 31-12-3, the Lightning have been struggling of late, having lost three in a row and five of their last seven games. The loss of Palat will not help the slumping team, especially while Tampa Bay is on an eight-game road trip, which started Saturday in Minnesota. The 26-year-old Palat has eight goals and 22 assists this year in 46 games. He has one goal and four assists in the team’s last five games despite their struggles.
The Tampa Bay Lightning announced they have recalled center Matthew Peca and wing Michael Bournival from the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. The 24-year-old Peca has been having a solid season with Syracuse with eight goals and 23 assists in 42 games and was recently named as an AHL All-Star. He leads the team in both assists and points. The 25-year-old Bournival has 13 goals and 14 assists in 40 games with the Crunch. He already has 108 career NHL games under his belt between Tampa Bay and the Montreal Canadiens.