{"id":503886,"date":"2026-03-15T01:16:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T01:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/503886\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T01:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T01:16:36","slug":"nick-paul-returns-to-lightning-lineup-bringing-energy-and-versatility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/503886\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Paul Returns to Lightning Lineup, Bringing Energy and Versatility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Tampa Bay Lightning will get a boost to their lineup on Saturday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes at Benchmark International Arena.<\/p>\n<p>Lightning head coach Jon Cooper confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/lightning\/player\/nick-paul-8477426\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Nick Paul;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Nick Paul&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Nick Paul<\/a> will return after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury he sustained during the NHL Stadium Series game on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Paul is known for being vocal on the bench and in the locker room, and he&#8217;s a versatile player that Cooper can move up and down the lineup. With Geekie reassigned to Syracuse, Paul could slot in on the fourth line Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just trying to be the guy who brings momentum to the game,\u201d said Paul. \u201cIf we need a momentum switch, I want to be the person out there ready to do that \u2014 just be wherever they need me to play. It\u2019s been a crazy season with our roster, so I\u2019m just trying to be that versatile guy who can move anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/lightning\/player\/gage-goncalves-8482201\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gage Goncalves;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Gage Goncalves&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Gage Goncalves<\/a>, sitting two stalls down from Paul, said he brings a welcome boost of energy to the group.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPauly\u2019s probably one of the best guys in this room as a whole,&#8221; he said. &#8220;To have him back on the bench talking and keeping things light, knowing when to tighten it up and when to keep guys loose, it\u2019s awesome for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe brings back a great component. He\u2019s awesome in the faceoff dot, and he seems to score big goals at big times. I know a lot of the guys are excited to have him back tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul was equally complimentary of Goncalves.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGage is a great player. He\u2019s very skilled and smart, even if it\u2019s not the plays you really notice out there. The more confidence he gets, the more it\u2019s going to show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Paul back in the lineup and players like Goncalves in the mix, the Lightning hope to regain some momentum as they head into a critical stretch of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought when we were on that run, it was all about the kind of hockey we were playing,&#8221; Paul added. &#8220;It\u2019s defense first, not forcing a play and giving them momentum. Just getting pucks deep and playing winning hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning will get a boost to their lineup on Saturday when they host the Carolina&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[29,3309,5,2086,189,4,1334,540,92,5168,5167,59277],"class_list":["post-503886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-gage-goncalves","tag-hockey","tag-jon-cooper","tag-lightning","tag-nhl","tag-nick-paul","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaylightning","tag-versatile-player"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116230552459201215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}