Lightning test results are for Lightning and the end result is that they will be short of some players for a short while. Bryan Burns of Tampa Bay’s group site relays that scorer Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brian Elliott, Center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, defender player Mikhail Sergachev, and assistant coach Rob Zettler all have been placed in the COVID protocol.
As is the case with anyone participating in the COVID protocol, they will all miss at least the next ten days.
Vasilevskiy is certainly a notable loss for Tampa Bay as he has another good start to his season with 2.14 GAA along with 0.928 SV% in 24 games. No Elliott available also means two of their AHL netminders – Maxime Lagace, Hugo Alnefelt, and Amir Miftakhov – will need to be brought up and only Lagace has limited NHL experience.
As for Sergachev, his output is quite similar to his pace last season when he had two goals and a dozen assists in 30 games while averaging 21:57 per battle, the third highest ATOI on Lightning. Unless Erik Cernak ready to return from his injury, they will also need to call someone from AHL Syracuse to cover him.
Bellemare is in her first season with Tampa Bay after arriving from Colorado and has scored three goals and four assists in what is essentially a checking role.
When things settle, Tampa Bay will return to action on Tuesday against Montreal.
