Nikita Kucherov enters COVID protocol

The Tampa Bay Lightning thought they had seen the last of the COVID-19 wave that swept through the National Hockey League around the holiday break when Ross Colton exited COVID protocol on January 11.
At the time, Colton was the last remaining Lightning player or coach still in COVID protocol.
He is no longer the last.
On Tuesday, the Lightning were dealt a significant blow to their lineup, the team announcing Nikita Kucherov had entered COVID protocol, meaning, at the least, he'll miss home games this week against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday and Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.

Kucherov recorded multiple points in five of the previous six games and six games overall since returning from a lower-body injury that sidelined him 32 games from October 19 to January 4, notching four goals and 13 points over that stretch.

"It's just become kind of the norm sadly," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of the Kucherov news. "And so, guys get it, you're out probably five days and then you come back. It's unfortunate. If somebody's going to pick it up, you kind of hope they get it during our little bit of a break. We've gone through this. All the other teams have gone through it. Hopefully it's not something that starts taking guys down again. We've just got to move on and know that this is probably not over yet."
Kucherov is the 10th different Lightning player to enter the NHL's COVID protocol since the start of the season, joining Brian Elliott, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Taylor Raddysh, Andrej Sustr, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Cal Foote, Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev and Colton. Additionally, Lightning coaches Cooper, Rob Zettler and Frantz Jean also spent time in COVID protocol.
The rest of practice was a mixed bag on Tampa Bay's injury front. Jan Rutta and Ondrej Palat both skated and were full participants. Erik Cernak, however, remains sidelined and might be out longer than initially expected.
Palat has missed the previous five games with a lower-body injury sustained in a win January 11 at Buffalo but said the issue was something he'd been dealing with for a couple of weeks.
"It was something that I just needed a little time off to make sure it's closer to 100 percent," Palat said following Tuesday's practice. "I'm ready to play. I'm glad we did that, and hopefully now I'm ready to go."
Palat could potentially return to the lineup when the Lightning next play Thursday versus New Jersey. He was back in his spot on the Bolts' top line alongside Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli and replaced Kucherov in the right circle on the top power-play unit at Tuesday's practice.

As for Cernak, the rugged defenseman blocked a shot off his foot in a win January 13 versus Vancouver. He was a game-time decision for Tampa Bay's following game two nights later but didn't play.
The thinking was Cernak wouldn't miss a significant amount of time with this latest injury, but he didn't play on the team's three-game trip through California and might need more recovery than expected.
"Cerny and Bogo are still, well, they're both injured," Cooper said, referring as well to Zach Bogosian, who is a little over a week into an injury expected to sideline him two to three weeks. "Not exactly sure when these guys are going to come back. Our games, we've got these three at home and then a little bit of a break and then those three makeup games, so there is a little bit of time. But we're not going to see any of them for sure these next three home games I don't think."
Cernak has been hobbled three separate times this season. He suffered an upper-body injury and was forced to miss eight games from November 13-28. A week later, he sustained a lower-body injury that kept him out for 10 more contests.