Ryan McDonagh, who missed his first game of the season Tuesday in Tampa Bay's 2-1 victory over the Stars, will not play tonight Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. The veteran defenseman sustained a lower-body injury during the first period of the Bolts' win Sunday over Florida and didn't return for the second or third periods.
Cooper hinted the Lightning will likely have to go without McDonagh for the remainder of the road trip, which concludes Saturday in Carolina against the Hurricanes, the second place team in the Central Division trailing the Bolts by four points.
McDonagh has two goals and eight points in 31 games and is Tampa Bay's leader for blocked shots, average shorthanded time on ice and ranks second for overall time on ice.
"He's doubtful on the trip," Cooper said.
The Lightning also might be without the services of Erik Cernak, the other half of the Bolts' shutdown defensive pair along with McDonagh. Cernak blocked a shot in the third period of Tuesday's 2-1 win and was shaken up but came back out for a critical 5-on-3 penalty kill the Bolts were able to escape to preserve the victory.
Cooper said Cernak might not be able to go tonight in Dallas. If he's unavailable, Luke Schenn would draw back into the lineup in his place. Schenn hasn't played since March 13 and has only skated three times over the last month but is a veteran who has shown an ability to produce even with infrequent starts.
Cernak has been a stalwart defensively and is nearing his career high for assists with nine helpers through just 29 games. He posted 11 in 58 games during his rookie season in Tampa Bay in 2018-19.
"We'll have to see," Cooper said about Cernak's availability tonight. "We've got a little bit of wait and see until game time."
With McDonagh out, expect Andreas Borgman to start his second-consecutive game for the Lightning. He skated 14:13 Tuesday and contributed a hit, takeaway and blocked shot in just his second game this season with the Bolts.
Tuesday's contest was Borgman's 50th NHL game. He previously skated 48 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2017-18 season.
Not all was negative on the injury front following Tampa Bay's morning skate in Dallas. Cooper said Mitchell Stephens, who has missed 28-consecutive games after suffering a severe lower-body injury January 23 in Columbus, is getting closer to a return and might be back in the lineup as soon as next week.
"I think we could probably start thinking about Stevie maybe next week, so we could start putting him in that day-to-day category, but that wouldn't happen until next week," Cooper said.
The return of Stephens combined with the emergence of rookie Ross Colton led, in part, to the decision to trade Alexander Volkov to the Anaheim Ducks late Wednesday night in exchange for forward prospect Antoine Morand and a seventh-round pick in the 2023 Draft that becomes a 2024 seventh-round pick if the Ducks' 2023 pick is unavailable due to conditions of a previous trade.
Cooper said the Lightning's cap situation forced their hand in regards to Volkov but wished the young forward nothing but the best going forward.
"I'm always going to remember Game 6 and the kid spent 64 days in a bubble, worked his tail off and earned his right to play in Game 6 with what might be, probably definitely at the time was the biggest game of his life," Cooper said. "He gave us a contribution, he drew a penalty in which we scored on the power play and helped us win the Cup. You need everyone involved, even guys that didn't get a ton of minutes during the bubble. Volky gave it to us, and he'll always live in Lightning history as a contributor to a Stanley Cup."
