The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves now down 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in the best-of-seven first-round series. Facing elimination, it certainly would hurt their cause even further if they were without their captain and best scoring threat Steven Stamkos.
The Lightning lost 3-2 to the Canadiens on Sunday. Stamkos left the game temporarily and was shaken up after taking a knee to the head in the second period. Stamkos did return to begin the third period, adding a pair of assists in a losing cause.
“Our staff said he was good to go and Steven said he was OK...so he played,” said Tampa Bay’s head coach Jon Cooper, as per David Amber of CBC.
“It was just something I tried to shake off,” said Stamkos, as per NHL.com. “Obviously, games like this you don’t want to miss any time, so I want to be out there as much as I can to help our team win. It was close tonight, but not good enough.”
Stamkos said he told the medical trainers that he wanted to get back out there. He says he has a headache but wanted to play.
— Brian Wilde (@BWildeMTL) April 21, 2014
Stamkos said he felt good enough to come back in third period after knee-to-head hit from Emelin late in second.
— Missy Zielinski (@Missy_Zielinski) April 21, 2014
Game 4 of this series goes Tuesday night in Montreal.