PITTSBURGH – Steven Stamkos had a game-day routine that looked more like a player who is in the lineup than one sitting out, but the Tampa Bay Lightning captain indicated that his status remains unchanged ahead of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final.
“There’s nothing to update,” Stamkos said Thursday morning. “That’s all I can say.”
He has essentially been in a holding pattern for the last couple of weeks while recovering from a blood clot near his right collarbone that required surgery on April 4. With Stamkos taking the injectable blood-thinning medication Lovenox since that procedure, it hasn’t been safe for him to return to game action.
However, he has been skating with teammates throughout this series and routinely stayed out afterwards for extra work to get his conditioning to the highest level possible.
On Thursday, Stamkos took part in a morning meeting in the coach’s office with select players and skated for roughly 25 minutes at Consol Energy Center afterwards. That was significantly shorter than the hour-plus he put in during previous game days, but he brushed aside a question about why he made the change.
“I think we’ve skated enough the last couple weeks,” said Stamkos. “We’ll see what happens after tonight, and hopefully I can skate some more in the future.”
With Tampa facing the Pittsburgh Penguins in a must-win game to reach the Stanley Cup Final, the possibility of him making a dramatic return appeared to be a long shot. But it couldn’t be ruled out entirely.
Stamkos declined to place odds on the possibility – “I’m done with that,” he said – but there probably won’t be complete clarity until the pre-game warmup.
The team’s other injured star, Ben Bishop, definitely won’t be able to suit up for Game 7. The Vezina Trophy finalist suffered an undisclosed lower-body injury in the series opener and has seen 21-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy play well in his absence.
Bishop put in a long on-ice session on Thursday morning and seems optimistic that he’ll be available at some point in the next round if his teammates move on. He was never a serious consideration to get back into this series, though.
“It wasn’t really much of a thought,” said Bishop. “I mean I’m not there yet. I’m not close enough –you want to be out there, but it’s just not that close yet to have to debate.”
Bishop posted a shutout when the Lightning survived this exact same scenario a year ago, winning a Game 7 over the New York Rangers 2-0 at Madison Square Garden to move on to the Stanley Cup Final.
That game, plus the 45 others they’ve played in the post-season since 2014, should help them handle the big situation they’re facing now.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Stamkos. “You have to embrace the moment: We can’t be scared now. That’s why I think the experience that we’ve had the past couple seasons is hopefully going to play to our advantage.”
Should he be unable to play, it’s bound to be a difficult 60 (or more) minutes to watch.
The 26-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent and has an uncertain future with the organization that drafted him first overall in 2008. Stamkos hasn’t been able to suit up for the Lightning since his blood clot was discovered following a March 31 game against Montreal.
Asked how hard it would be to miss a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference final, he replied: “You want to be part of it, so we’ll see what happens here tonight and go from there.”
