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Jason Garrison's injury poor timing for Lightning

 
Jason Garrison, who is expected to be out for three to four weeks, is the latest to join a long list of injured Lightning defensemen.
Jason Garrison, who is expected to be out for three to four weeks, is the latest to join a long list of injured Lightning defensemen.
Published March 31, 2015

This is exactly what the Lightning did not need.

For the second straight season, just as the Lightning is about to ride a wave of optimism into the postseason, a major injury threatens to put its Stanley Cup hopes in jeopardy.

A season ago, goalie Ben Bishop went down just before the playoffs, and the Lightning was promptly swept in the first round by the Canadiens. If backup goalie Anders Lindback hadn't resembled a piece of Swiss cheese in that series, the Lightning might have advanced to the second round.

Now comes injury news that isn't quite as devastating as last year's Bishop injury, but it's pretty darn close. The Lightning likely will miss the services of defenseman Jason Garrison for three to four weeks, which could be the rest of the season if things don't pan out in the playoffs. And things might not pan out without Garrison, who was injured Saturday on a borderline dirty hit by Detroit's Justin Abdelkader.

This is a serious gut punch to Tampa Bay, especially because the Lightning already is missing defenseman Braydon Coburn.

"To have him and Coburn out, which is sort of our shutdown pair,'' Lightning coach Jon Cooper said, "that's really a big blow to us.''

It's a bad injury with even worse timing. Just the other day, Cooper was talking about the "night-and-day" difference between this season's Lightning and last year's version. He pointed specifically to the improved defense, and Garrison is a major part of that improvement.

If you're listing the Lightning's top four defensemen, I'd start with Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman, followed by Garrison and Coburn. However, a strong case could be made that Garrison is the best the Lightning has, at least this season.

Garrison is logging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game and is a plus-27. Not only is that tops among Lightning defensemen, it's the best among all defensemen in the NHL. And this despite often lining up against the better offensive players in the NHL.

"There's no question he is like a silent MVP on our (defense)," Cooper said. "A big body, he plays big minutes. He plays against other teams' best line. He's heavy."

For example, the Lightning recently took on the Florida Panthers and their star, Jaromir Jagr. Even at age 43, Jagr remains a matchup nightmare because of his 6-foot-3, 240-pound frame.

"The one guy on our D corps who could handle him was Jason Garrison," Cooper said.

Now the Lightning will have to rely on someone else to stamp out the big power forwards that it might meet in the playoffs, whether that's the Caps' Alex Ovechkin, the Wings' Abdelkader or the Bruins' Milan Lucic.

The Lightning still has a shutdown duo should Cooper choose to have Stralman and Hedman paired together. But if those two are constantly worried about putting the clamps on the other team, can they be effective offensively? And those two, especially Hedman, are needed for their offensive contributions.

In addition, come playoff time, every team has more than one potent line. With Garrison and, possibly, Coburn out (or at least less than full strength), the Lightning will be asking for major contributions from players who have yet to prove they can make major contributions at the NHL level.

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Think of it this way: At full strength, the Lightning's top four defensemen were as good as any in the league. You're talking Stralman, Hedman, Garrison and Coburn. Those four easily could've chewed up the bulk of the playing time, especially in the critical moments of critical postseason games. That means some combination of Matt Carle, Mark Barberio and Andrej Sustr would be the team's third pairing and asked to play a more manageable 15-17 minutes per game.

Now? Now is potential trouble.

After Hedman and Stralman, the Lightning's next two defensemen are likely Carle and Sustr. Oh, and did I mention that Sustr is out for possibly two weeks? Now the Lightning might have to give significant playoff minutes to Luke Witkowski (10 career NHL games) and Nikita Nesterov (21 career NHL games). And this is assuming that no one else gets hurt (Hedman, by the way, left Monday's game with an undisclosed injury).

True, the Lightning survived an injury earlier this season to Hedman, but that was early in the season and Hedman was the only steady defenseman out. Now the Lightning has to overcome injuries to two major pieces on defense, although it is holding out hope that Coburn will be available come playoff time. But Coburn has been out since March 10, and how rusty might he be at the most critical time of the season? How effective can he be when each team takes its game to another level?

While you hate to lose anyone, a case could be made that the last player the Lightning could afford to lose is either Garrison, Stralman or Hedman.

Although the Lightning doesn't want to find out what a second straight playoff would be like without Bishop, it does seem better equipped to handle a Bishop injury with Andrei Vasilevskiy in the backup role.

And while the Lightning would never want to lose forwards Steven Stamkos or Tyler Johnson or Nikita Kucherov, it is much deeper at forward than defense.

This isn't meant to suggest that the Lightning's playoff hopes are over before they even start. But after a season full of optimism, this is not the way you want to go into the playoffs.