This might be one of those situations where people use the 20/20 vision of hindsight to question why a player was in the lineup during a “meaningless” game.
Some might complain louder thanks to what’s been a somewhat bumpy season for Tyler Johnson, sometimes for injury reasons.
Of course, the counterargument is that Johnson needs to get his confidence going heading into the playoffs, as the Tampa Bay Lightning would need a focused forward against the Detroit Red Wings.
(Not to mention the possible “You can’t sit everyone” retort ...)
However you feel about the decision to suit him up, the Lightning need to cross their fingers after Johnson was shaken up by a frightful fall, which you can see in the video above.
He won’t be back tonight against the Montreal Canadiens:
#TBLightning forward Tyler Johnson has sustained an upper body injury and will not return to tonight’s game. #TBLvsMTL
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 10, 2016
But that only tells us so much. Perhaps the team will elaborate on his condition beyond tonight, but considering the circumstances, it may take quite a bit longer to get a better feel for what Johnson is dealing with.