According to multiple reports, Tampa Bay Lightning scoring machine Steven Stamkos will be activated from the team's Injured Reserved List and will be available to the lineup on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
The news is not just a time for rejoicing amongst Lightning fans, but also for the Canadian Olympic Team and their fans who, along with Stamkos, are holding their breath in hopes that everything goes well in his comeback from a broken right tibia suffered in Boston on November 11, as his performance on Saturday will go a long way into determining if he will be well enough to play for Team Canada at the Sochi Olympics.
Don't think for a second that Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper is taking this comeback lightly, not his possible participation in the Olympics, as he's been putting the 23-year-old through some brutal paces to make sure he's going to be ready and not putting the rest of the season at risk.
"I could see every time he had the puck no one would go near him," Cooper told the Tampa Bay Times. "I said, 'He's wearing a white jersey but he's not an egg, somebody hit him. Let's see what we've got here.' That probably helped out a little bit. I don't know how much but at least guys bumped into him."
The Lightning could also look at the Olympic games as a sort of conditioning assignment for Stamkos, since teams are not permitted to schedule practices during the break, so his return on Saturday takes on extra meaning in that respect.
Stamkos himself is understandably excited, but also cautiously anxious as Saturday approaches.
"It felt great going up and down the ice; the lungs felt pretty good." Stamkos said on Tuesday after practice, "It was nice to snap around on the power play a little bit, too. It was a big hurdle for me today. A lot of it is physical but there's a mental side, and today was climbing over another hurdle."
The Lightning have done well to keep pace with the Bruins in the Atlantic Division during Stamkos' absence, and if he comes back at full speed, Tampa Bay could be a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.
Saturday should be an interesting day indeed.
http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/02/stamkos-proclaims-readiness-will-play.html
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