Steven Stamkos day-to-day with a Lower-Body Injury, out against Arizona Coyotes

Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos will miss tonight’s game against the Arizona Coyotes and is considered day-to-day with a Lower-Body Injury.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has spent a good portion of the back half of the season dealing with various injury issues. At times, it almost seems as if the Bolts can’t win for losing when it comes to this particular subject. As the Lightning gets back one key component to the offense, they lose another in the process.

Unfortunately for the Lightning and their fans, there is some more disappointing news coming out of the Bolts Nation this morning. According to Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper, captain Steven Stamkos will not be joining his teammates on the ice as they take on the Arizona Coyotes and has been classified as day-to-day with a Lower-Body Injury.

Before anyone panics and thinks the captain will miss any significant time heading into the postseason, take a deep breath and center yourself. According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, Coach Cooper says this is more of a “body maintenance” issue than it is an injury issue.

"“[It’s] more maintenance for him and 100 percent, we’re not really right there yet. So, sit him out tonight and hopefully, a little rest here will help him out.”"

As anyone who has been keeping an eye on the Lightning this season knows, Steven Stamkos has been a major part of the Lightning’s offensive success. In the 75 games the captain has played this season, he has brought home 27 goals and 59 assists for a total of 86 points.

The Bolts have a difficult schedule heading into the seven games of the regular season. The Lightning has two more meetings with the Boston Bruins in this amount of time.

The Bruins are slowly creeping on the Bolts in the Atlantic Division standings and the remaining meetings between these two teams will have a profound effect on the Lightning’s positioning at the start of the postseason.

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The good news is it sounds as if Stamkos won’t be missing any serious time and should be able to make his way back to the ice in plenty of time to properly prepare for the playoffs. The Lightning will need to be firing on all cylinders once the playoffs start and a big part of this is staying healthy.