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TOM JONESLightning waits to see if injured Fedotenko can play tonight.
CALGARY - Scary. Grotesque. Gruesome.
Ruslan Fedotenko looked like he had just been hit in the face with an ax. The Lightning forward was slammed into the corner board by Calgary defenseman Robyn Regehr late in Saturday's Game 3 and the edge of the board had opened a deep gash in his right cheek.
His skin actually was flapping up and down as he staggered into the dressing room.
An hour and half after the game, Fedotenko was pressing an ice pack to his badly swollen cheek and he wore a smile that suggested he didn't know his location, profession and, perhaps, even his name.
So when Sunday rolled around, everyone wanted to know about the hit, the ramifications and the player who, believe it or not, is leading the Lightning in goals during the postseason.
But Regehr didn't attend the Flames optional practice, Lightning coach John Tortorella refused to comment and Fedotenko said nothing more than that he felt better.
Fast forward to today and a new set of questions: Will Fedotenko be well enough to play tonight or again in the series and what will the Lightning do if Fedotenko can't play?
"I had breakfast with him, he seems fine to me," Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk said Sunday. "He feels good. He took a blow there and he went down. I think he was more scared than anything else. But he seems fine to me."
Fedotenko was not hospitalized. In fact, he went back to the team hotel and attended a team meeting Sunday. Officially he is listed as "day to day with an upper-body injury."
Though the Lightning refused to announce anything, it is believed Fedotenko did not suffer broken bones. So if the "upper-body injury" means a nasty cut, Fedotenko could play. If it means a concussion, then he likely won't.
Tortorella said Fedotenko's status would be a "game-time decision." Already, though, the wheels are spinning in his head as to what to do if Fedotenko cannot play.
If the Lightning does as it did when Cory Stillman could not play in the first round, Dmitry Afanasenkov will move up to the top line with Vinny Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. And Ben Clymer will go in on the fourth line.
"The only thing you can do is prepare as if you're going to play," Clymer said. "That's what your job is when you're not playing."
That's not easy, though, when most of your playoff experience is sitting in the press box and, suddenly, you're pressed into Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final.
"All you can is make sure you're focused," Clymer said, "and whatever your job is that's what you got to do that night."
Afanasenkov's job, should he replace Fedotenko on the top line, is to create offense and finish the chances that Lecavalier and St. Louis create for him.
Again, that's not easy when most of your ice time in the playoffs is throwing a few checks and making sure the other team doesn't score.
"If I move, for me, it's no problem," Afanasenkov said. "I've played Vinny before, so I think it would be fine."
The Lightning has other options. Eric Perrin could be inserted in the lineup to create offense, but he's small.
Martin Cibak is big and can play a physical game, but he does not provide the offense Perrin offers. Maybe Clymer or Perrin both play, or Clymer and Cibak and a defenseman sits.
The questions will be answered tonight around 8.