Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman is unlikely to suit up for his team in its first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens, head coach Jon Cooper announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Hedman hasn\u2019t played in a game since exiting in the first period of Tampa Bay\u2019s 6-2 victory versus the Vancouver Canucks on March 19 due to illness. Six days later, the Lightning announced Hedman was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons.<\/p>\n
Hedman was spotted on the ice after Tampa Bay\u2019s optional morning skate ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Game 2 against the visiting Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens recorded a 4-3 victory in overtime on Sunday in the opener of the best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n
When asked to put a percentage on Hedman\u2019s health, Cooper said the defenseman could return \u201cat some point, I think, but not right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t rule anything out, but I\u2019d say I\u2019d put that on the doubtful side for this series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hedman, 35, has recorded 17 points (one goal, 16 assists) in 33 games this season. He has endured extended absences due to an undisclosed injury in November and elbow surgery in December.<\/p>\n
Hedman is a 2017-18 Norris Trophy winner as the best defenseman in the league, a two-time Stanley Cup champion (2020, 2021) and the 2020 Conn Smythe Trophy recipient as the playoff MVP.<\/p>\n
He has totaled 811 career points (172 goals, 639 assists), a plus-192 rating and 782 penalty minutes in 1,164 games since being selected by the Lightning with the second overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman is unlikely to suit up for his team in its first-round series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-557443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116444336180542644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557443","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=557443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}