The black cloud over the Lightning got a little deeper with 20 seconds left in the second period as defenseman Andrej Meszaros took a puck off the right side of his face and left the ice bleeding heavily.

Is there a curse here?

Tampa Bay already is without three injured veteran defensemen; Paul Ranger, Jamie Heward and Lukas Krajicek. If Meszaros is out (and who knows, he might even come back today as we have no word on his condition), Tampa Bay may have to dig even deeper into its farm system. It already has called up Matt Smaby, Ty Wishart and Vladimir Mihalik. Who's next? Kevin Quick? Scott Jackson? Is Andy Rogers recovered from his back injury? Tampa Bay might even have to chance losing Mike Lundin on recall waivers.

More likely, I would think, the team either dresses five, or perhaps freezes one of Luke Krajicek's injured fingers and gets him out there at least as a warm body.

Did you see it?

Anton Babchuk takes a shot that deflects off Ryan Malone's stick and goes straight at Meszaros. At least Meszaros had time to turn his face away from the screaming puck.

Other stuff: Jussi Jokinen was the scratch tonight. Also, the team said Jason Ward has a sprained right knee. He had an MRI in Tampa after being hurt Wednesday in Norfolk.