Tampa Bay Lightning forward and captain Steven Stamkos has left the team’s road-trip to head back to Tampa Bay to have his injury re-evaluated. In Tuesday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, Stamkos became tangled up along the boards and seemed to have hit his knee. He would skate off the ice, favoring his right leg, and would not return to the game. There is currently no official word on what exactly is wrong with Stamkos, but it is believed to be a problem with the meniscus in his knee.
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/798962381967785987
Lightning’s Steven Stamkos to Undergo Injury Evaluation; Possible Meniscus Issue
It is extremely likely that Stamkos will miss the remainder of the Lightning’s five game road-trip, which picks up again Thursday night in Buffalo against the Buffalo Sabres. In Tuesday’s game, Stamkos had played four shifts at around 2:07 of ice time before leaving late in the first period. Tampa Bay hopes that the injury is nothing major, with Stamkos having already missed significant time throughout his career due to injury. In November of 2013, he crashed into the goal post against the Boston Bruins, which sidelined him for almost the entire season, and last season, missed all but one of the Lightning’s playoff games in route to their 2016 Eastern Conference Finals appearance. This off-season, Stamkos, who was fielding offers from other teams from around the National Hockey League, re-signed with Tampa Bay, agreeing to an eight year, $68 million contract deal.
“You never want to lose players, especially one of the best players in the world,” defenseman Victor Hedman said. “He’s our leader. We’ll see the extent of what happened. Not much we can do.” Head coach Jon Cooper added- “It’s something we’ve been through before, you never want to lose your top goal scorer, and your captain. But not too long ago we were in this situation.” (Via tampabay.com)
In 17 games played for the Bolts this season, Stamkos has scored nine goals and has added 17 assists, putting him at 20 points- tying him for second in the National Hockey League with Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin, and putting him behind Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele and fellow Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, each with 21 points.
Main Photo:
