- Emily Kaplan is ESPN’s countrywide NHL reporter.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have a opportunity to clinch the Stanley Cup on Saturday night time, but they’ll have to do it with no their captain, Steven Stamkos.
The 30-calendar year-old centre will not participate in in Match 5, mentor Jon Cooper announced Saturday early morning. The Lightning guide the Stanley Cup Final in opposition to the Dallas Stars three-1, with the pivotal Recreation 5 coming on the 2nd evening of a again-to-again.
Stamkos has been “unfit to perform” for the entire Stanley Cup playoffs — save for his transient appearance in Match three, in which he performed much less than 3 minutes, and scored a intention on his initially shot.
“We have to get an additional acquire, and Stammer is familiar with that he was a major portion in us having this significantly off the ice, and what he contributed when he performed,” Cooper claimed. “But for tonight, he won’t be in.”
Stamkos, who underwent core muscle mass surgical procedures on March two, has endured various setbacks that have saved him out of the lineup. He said he experienced “an situation” throughout the first period of Activity 3, which is what kept him on the bench for the remainder of the recreation.
“There is certainly been a lot of driving-the-scenes matters that I am going to be glad to share with you fellas soon after the year,” Stamkos explained just after the recreation. “We’re concentrated on profitable appropriate now, and tonight was a move in the ideal route.”