Walker, Konopka sit with minor injuries

The long and winding road through three time zones finally came to an end Monday night, but along the way there were been some bumps and bruises.

Lightning D Matt Walker and C Zenon Konopka sat out the final game of the six-game road trip against the New York Islanders. Walker left after the first period of Friday's win at St. Louis with an undisclosed lower body injury he said isn't considered serious but will need a few days of rest. No testing has been necessary, Walker said.

The coaching staff decided to sit Konopka because of all the bumps and bruises the rugged forward has acquired while leading the NHL with 15 fighting majors and 135 total penalty minutes. Over the past few days, Konopka has walked around with a stiff neck, looking as if ice packs were the latest fashion trend.

Konopka wasn't pleased with the decision, but he respected the wishes of the coaching and medical staff.

"Everyone involved with the team believes it's in my best interest to come out. I'm not a guy that lies, so obviously I'm not happy with that," Konopka said. "It's not the worst thing in the world, but you live in the moment and for the last three or four years you can probably count on one hand the number of games I've missed because of injury. So, I don't like taking a day off for maintenance, but it's not my decision."

One player who returned was RW Steve Downie, who sat out the previous two games with what the team said was an upper-body injury. Downie said he wasn't feeling right after a face-first fall to the ice during a fight in Nashville on Tuesday, but after a couple of days' rest was ready to return.

Krajicek-ing out

It would appear that Tampa Bay is set to sever ties with D Lukas Krajicek, who went unclaimed on waivers Dec. 12 before being assigned to Norfolk of the American Hockey League on Friday.

Though General Manager Brian Lawton has been looking to trade the 26-year-old former first-round pick since the summer, he has yet to find a taker. No matter what happens - Lawton still believes a trade can be made - Krajicek likely will not wind up back in Tampa this season.

"He will not be put on re-entry waivers under any circumstances. He's pretty much there until he can be moved," Lawton said. "There were some teams who were interested in trading for Lukas, to be honest, but they wanted to trade back X-amount of money and we didn't feel that was in our best interest.

"But I think something will happen there, I really do."

Who's tired?

Though the players might disagree privately, Coach Rick Tocchet doesn't believe his team is tired at the end of a 12-day road trip.

"I don't buy the tiredness," Tocchet said. "We've had enough days off. Every team goes through this, and when you are losing, you can't be tired for a game."

Even with the grueling travel schedule since the start of November, which has featured three separate trips of at least eight days, Tocchet reiterated his feelings when asked Monday if he bought into the theory that the last game of a trip, such as Monday's, was more difficult to play.

"Not when you win one out of (five) games (on the trip)," he said.

Snow hassle

Travel issues stemming from the weekend blizzard along the East Coast prevented Lightning goaltender coach Cap Raeder from flying from Erie, Pa., into New York to rejoin the team Monday. So Norfolk video coach Leigh Mendelson drove to Philadelphia, picked Raeder up at the airport and drove to New York.

Erik Erlendsson