On the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Joe Smith: Brayden Point was at the arena yesterday but not practicing. He’s still a few weeks away – was a four to six week recovery from late December.
Joe Smith: J.T. Brown skated with the team for the first time in a week. Hard to see him playing tonight.
Joe Smith of Tampa Bay Times: Winger Ryan Callahan is expected to be out for four weeks. Callahan is still being bother by off-season hip surgery. The Lightning could put Callahan on the LTIR and shut him down for the season, a move that would give them some extra salary cap space for the trade deadline. There is no sense at the moment that the Lightning are ready to make that move.
On the Washington Capitals …
Tarik El-Bashir of CSN Mid Atlantic: Defenseman John Carlson left yesterday’s game in the first period with a lower-body injury. He is traveling with the team. Carlson might have re-aggravated something that caused him to leave Thursday’s practice early.
On the Buffalo Sabres …
John Vogl of the Buffalo News: Forward Tyler Ennis has been out of the lineup for two months, but is now ready to return. He’s been out since November 7th after he underwent sports hernia/groin surgery.
Josh Gorges has missed four games with a hip injury. He’ll be seeing doctors today or tomorrow.
Dmitry Kulikov has been out since December 27th with a back injury. He’s been skating on his own.
On the Boston Bruins …
Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: Winger Matt Beleskey has missed the past 21 games with a right knee injury. He’s been practicing with the team the team, but he still hasn’t been cleared for full contact. Beleskey thinks he’s about a week away from returning to the lineup.
“It’s kind of tough with the schedule where we don’t have too many hard practices for the whole team, but I think I’m going to gradually work in some contact. Hopefully about a week or so . That would be ideal if there’s no setbacks, but we’ll see how it feels.”
Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: Colin Miller is out with a lower-body injury, and Kevan Miller was knocked out of Saturday’s game with a concussion.
“He suffered a concussion, so he’s going through the protocol right now,” said Julien. “I don’t think anybody is well-equipped for losses , but we’ve got some depth at that position. We still have enough guys up here to get through, and hopefully we’ll get some guys back sooner rather than later.”