Friday, 4 a.m.
Imagine no Nikita Kucherov.
Imagine no Steven Stamkos.
Imagine no Andrei Vasilevskiy.
What would be left of the Tampa Bay Lightning then?
Well, evidently, there still would be enough to beat the Chicago Blackhawks. The Lighting took the ice without a great many of its headliners Thursday night and came away with a 4-2 victory to snap a rwo-game losing streak.
Kucherov missed the game because of an injury suffered in the previous loss to St. Louis. Stamkos played 5:17 of the first period, but sat out the second and third periods. Vasilevskiy sat out the game in favor of backup Curtis McElhinney.
Still, the Bolts won, getting goals from Mikhail Sergachev, Anthony Cerelli, Brayden Point and an empty-netter from Cedric Paquette. Goaltender McElhinney stopped 32 shots for his third straight win.
"He's got a lower body injury," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Stamkos. "It's something he aggravated eary. He sat on the bench too long in the second period. We gave him the option to go in, but he wanted to hang out with his teammates on his bench. He wasn’t able to finish the game."
The Lightning is home against Anahem on Saturday night at 7 p.m.