David Savard is injured and out for Game One with an upper-body injury. This means the Tampa Bay Lightning will be without one of their mainstay defenceman for tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Injury update: David Savard is out tonight with an upper-body injury.
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) May 30, 2021
David Savard Injured and Out For Game One
Savard was a trade deadline acquisition from the Columbus Blue Jackets. A really rough season in Columbus, Savard only scored one goal and only had six points in 40 games played. While not known for his offensive skill set, this was an awful season for Savard. A 43.1% Corsi and a -5.0 relative Corsi, the numbers don’t lie. In 14 games played for Tampa Bay, he was a -8 with zero points. So far in the playoffs, he’s been a less important defenceman for them, with zero points and only averaging about 15 minutes of ice time per game.
Moving Forward for Tampa Bay
With David Savard injured, this means Tampa will have to go deeper in their depth chart to find play six defensemen. Jan Rutta and Luke Schenn will likely make up the bottom pairing in place of Savard. Facing a highly skilled team like the Hurricanes, this bottom pairing will be heavily tested. Even though the big matchup is Carolina’s defence against Tampa Bay’s offence, the reverse is also going to be a competitive clash. Carolina’s offence is very deep and can get to the front of the net quickly, so Tampa Bay’s defence will have to be sharp in keeping opposing players away from Andrei Vasilevskiy. The third pairing will have to be especially cognizant, considering this is obviously the weakest link.
Both Tampa Bay and Carolina are coming into round two after winning a very intense First Round series. Both teams have strengths they need to use in order to overwhelm their opponents, and will need to control their weaknesses to give themselves the best chance possible.
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