Lightning get unfortunate Anthony Cirelli & Nick Paul Olympics injury news

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Lightning get unfortunate Anthony Cirelli & Nick Paul Olympics injury news originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are sitting very comfortably at the top of the Atlantic Division. But, Coach Jon Cooper had better experiences with games and their 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres needed more firepower than usual. A lot of it was because they did not have both Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul. Will these two get to play before and during the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics?

Tampa Bay becomes shorthanded​

Coach Cooper unveiled that both Cirelli and Paul would not play the next game against the Lightning. This means that Tampa Bay will have to heavily rely on Kucherov to bail them out once again when they face the Florida Panthers. More than that, their status for the Winter Olympics now came into question. The Team Canada and Lightning coach unveiled all of this before their win against the Sabres, via NHL Media.

"We'll have to evaluate from there. It was just a really awkward collision in the neutral zone. Same with Paul, he injured himself in overtime. It's two huge losses for us," Cooper said.

Notably, Cirelli has now been scrapped from the Team Canada roster. Sam Bennett from the Panthers will replace the void at the center position heading into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Paul, on the other hand, has been confirmed to not being able to play until after the break. These mean that the Lightning may need to wait longer than the Olympic break before they could see these two hit the ice.

Cirelli has an undisclosed injury. But, the Lightning fans saw him go down during their Stadium Series overtime thriller against the Boston Bruins. The center exited the game with two minutes left in the period. He would then no longer get back on the ice for the whole duration of that game. Meanwhile, Paul exited the game during overtime and his injury has also not been disclosed by the Lightning organization.

Hopefully, the Lightning's four-point and three-win lead over the Detroit Red Wings are able to cushion them from getting usurped as the Atlantic Division's first seed.

More NHL News:​

• Jack Hughes gets massive injury return details before Olympics​

• Capitals' Alex Ovechkin passes Wayne Gretzky in another historic NHL record​

• We now know what a Lightning trade for Artemi Panarin could look like​

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