Lightning update on Lukas Krajicek

Posted Oct 10, 2008 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Oct 10, 2008 at 01:54 PM

According to Lightning head coach Barry Melrose, new Lightning defenseman Lukas Krajicek is expected to arrive in Tampa on Saturday afternoon, just hours before Tampa Bay’s home opener against Carolina. With so little time between landing and getting to the rink, let alone getting accustomed to a new team, Krajicek is not expected to be in the lineup for the home opener.

Lightning vice president of hockey operations Brian Lawton and player personnel direction Jim Hammet are in Norfolk, Virginia, for Friday night’s opener for Tampa Bay’s top affiliate team. It is expected that a defenseman will be called-up based on tonight’s game. Melrose didn’t give any indication on who that might be, but one would think that Vladimir Mihalik might have the inside track if he performs well tonight. But others to keep in mind might be Matt Smaby, who was among the final cuts in training camp, as well as Andrew Hutchinson since the Lightning may need help on the power play.

In addition, Melrose announced that Ryan Craig, who suffered a groin injury in practice on Wednesday, is at least “two weeks’’ away from being ready to play. Jason Ward, who injured his groin muscle before the season opened, said he is at about 90 percent ready. Ward said that if called upon he could push through the iniury, but with the extra rest considering the light schedule the team has this month, he won’t be pushed back into the lineup. Ward did say that he’s itching to get back into the lineup and continue his preseason performance, in which he proved effective as a solid penalty killer.

The lines at practice Friday were the same as they have been all week, with Ryan Malone working with Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis while Vinny Prospal was on the line with Steven Stamkos and Radim Vrbata. Jussi Jokinen centered Evgeny Artyukhin and Mark Recchi while the Chris Gratton-Gary Roberts-Adam Hall staying together.

Melrose still has not announced who the starting goaltender will be for Saturday, but he did go over and speak to Mike Smith in the locker room after practice was over. He discussed with the media that he does like to inform the goaltender the night before a game. Melrose also mentioned that Smith took a puck off his hand this morning - not the same hand he injured in his start in Prague - but that it wasn’t a big deal and wouldn’t affect his ability to play.