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Jason Garrison returns to Lightning; Cedric Paquette hurt

 
Defenseman Jason Garrison is back in the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury.
Defenseman Jason Garrison is back in the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury.
Published Feb. 11, 2015

NASHVILLE — The Lightning blue line got a big boost Tuesday with the return of D Jason Garrison, who missed the past two games with a lower-body injury.

But Tampa Bay lost a forward, with C Cedric Paquette leaving the morning skate early and sitting out with an upper-body injury. He's considered day to day.

Garrison, who was injured Thursday against the Stars, said though he didn't like sitting out two games, it was best for the long term.

"It's tough," Garrison said. "You've just got to sometimes do what's right, do whatever's best for the team, considering how you're feeling and what happened. Those were two games I would have loved to have played, but in the middle of the season, coming to the end, this is the time that you've got to make sure you're feeling good."

The Lightning leaned more on rookies Luke Witkowski and Nikita Nesterov with Garrison out. But the 6-foot-2, 218-pound veteran was definitely missed, especially against the heavy Western Conference teams.

It's uncertain when Paquette's injury surfaced. He began the morning skate but left the ice early, with coach Jon Cooper calling him a "game-time decision." RW Brett Connolly took Paquette's spot, centering the third line with LW Alex Killorn and RW Jonathan Drouin.

VASY IN: Touted goalie prospect Andrei Vasilevskiy started Tuesday against the Predators, his fifth NHL start. With starter Ben Bishop playing in both Saturday's and Sunday's games, Cooper said it's about preserving the Vezina Trophy finalist for the playoff push. Bishop battled injuries last season, missing the postseason due to a dislocated elbow.

Vasilevskiy entered Tuesday 4-1 with a 1.96 goals against average in his first six games.

"Do we want to sit there and ride Ben Bishop, play him 8-10 games in a row? That's not what we want to do," Cooper said. "I think we learned a little bit last year, you need to have your guys fresh and ready to play if you are in the postseason. Maybe other teams have different philosophies, but we try to manage ours the best we can.

"Ben Bishop is our starting goaltender, but we didn't bring Vasilevskiy up to sit. If we were doing that, we'd just leave him in the minors. We need to get him NHL games, we think he's ready for it, he's proven he's ready.""

ICE CHIPS: Nesterov was scratched. … G Evgeni Nabokov, traded to the Sharks on Monday for future considerations, is expected to announce his retirement at a 3 p.m. news conference in San Jose today. … If the asking price for Maple Leafs D Cody Franson and Hurricanes D Andrej Sekera is a first-round pick and a prospect — as TSN's Bob McKenzie reported Tuesday — it might be considered too steep for a rental.