The Tampa Bay Lightning misplaced prime defenseman and captain Victor Hedman to damage throughout Thurdsay evening’s wild 6-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at Amalie Enviornment; he managed to play lower than three whole minutes within the first interval, and didn’t return.
Hedman appeared to tweak one thing after battling for a unfastened puck behind the web; replays present him lifting his leg up as he skated again towards the bench.
Following the sport, head coach Jon Cooper’s replace on Hedman’s situation wasn’t essentially the most encouraging, through X.
“We’ll see tomorrow,” Cooper mentioned. “It was robust for us to lose him, properly, it’s robust to lose him anytime however you lose him 10 minutes into the sport in order that put somewhat stress on us again there. After all, it occurs the sport we go 12 and 6 however the boys weathered via it and, hopefully, I do not know. We’ll see about Saturday.”
The Lightning will host the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon at Amalie Enviornment; puck drop is scheduled for 3:00 PM EST.
The Lightning haven’t got lengthy to contemplate their choices if Victor Hedman is injured
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The NHL Commerce Deadline is lower than 24 hours away, falling on Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM EST. If Hedman has suffered a major damage, the Lightning might want to act quick to switch him.
However because of the inconvenient timing of the damage, they’re going to have little or no time to not solely get the complete scope of Hedman’s wholesome but in addition to evaluate their choices when it comes to a possible substitute of their lineup.
Hedman will not be solely the Lightning captain but in addition performs essentially the most minutes of any defenseman and has assumed the highest management function that was vacated with the departure of former captain Steven Stamkos to Nashville this previous offseason.
Hedman, who was named the successor of Stamkos earlier than the season started, has performed in 60 video games thus far in 2024-25 and has scored 11 targets with 39 assists. He has 167 targets and 611 assists in 1,111 profession video games – all in a Lightning uniform.