Lightning’s Erik Cernak leaves game with injury

The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that defenseman Erik Cernak sustained an injury during Tuesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and will not return to the game.

Cernak’s injury occurred midway through the first period of the game, seemingly during a net front battle with Penguins winger Bryan Rust in the Lightning zone. Cernak was seen leaving the ice immediately after the play and he did not return to the game after that, with the Lightning confirming his absence before the third period.

It’s unclear whether or not Cernak’s departure from the game is due to any actual concerns with the injury, or if the Lightning just decided to shut him down as a precaution with the game being in blowout territory early and the Lightning still with six healthy defensemen in the lineup. There are no updates on the specifics of Cernak’s injury, how severe it is, and how long he is expected to be out of the lineup.

Cernak leaves the game with an assist on the 2-0 goal for the Lightning in 4:20 of ice time, with the assist coming from his breakout pass out of the zone after sustaining the injury, although he had left for the bench and was not on the ice when the goal was scored. The Lightning went on to beat the Penguins by a score of 6-1.

With the Lightning running a lineup of 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, they’ve still been able to run normal defense pairs even with Cernak’s absence, with J.J. Moser replacing him in the top four alongside Ryan McDonagh. That pairing has been outscored 5-3 and has a 44.82% 5v5 expected goal share in 73 minutes of ice time together this season.

Should Cernak miss any more time, Mitchell Chaffee was the Lightning’s lone healthy scratch, meaning that the Lightning will have to run a 12 forward and 6 defensemen lineup unless they call anyone up from the AHL.

Despite a few absences from the lineup, Cernak has actually had his most productive season in his NHL career, with 3 goals and 17 assists for a career-high 20 points in 65 games. However, health has always been an issue for Cernak, as he has only hit the 70 game mark in a regular season once in his career, playing exactly that many in the 2022-23 season.