Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos is eyeing a return to the lineup Saturday night for the first time since he broke his right tibia on Nov.11 and he hopes he'll be able to hit the ice in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
According to NHL.com, Stamkos has set Saturday's game against the Detroit Red Wings as his return date from the injury that sidelined him less than three months ago. The Lightning host the Red Wings at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Saturday in the team's last game before the NHL takes a two-week break for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
The report indicates that Stamkos is hopeful that he can use the game on Saturday as a measuring stick to see if he'll be good to go for the Olympic Games, where he was selected to play for Team Canada in the tournament.
Stamkos started the season red-hot, notching 14 goals and nine assists for 23 points, but he broke his tibia during a game with the Boston Bruins when he fell into the goal post on Nov. 11. He had surgery the next day and looks to make it back into the lineup for the first time in nearly three months.
Stamkos didn't play for Canada in 2010 when he was in his second NHL season and the team won the gold medal, but he'll hope to make his Olympic debut this year. Lightning coach Jon Cooper said that he hoped Stamkos will be able to play in the Olympics.
"I'm legitimately cheering for him to play, but you just sit here and say, 'If he was going to get hurt, why couldn't he have gotten hurt like a week-and-a-half or two weeks earlier?'" Cooper told NHL.com on Monday. "Or, 'Why couldn't the Olympics be a week later?' It's going to come right down to the wire on this one, but if anything [Monday], he looked pretty good in practice. It was his best day. I talked to him after and he said it was his best day yet. He was pretty encouraged."
Stamkos has been able to practice with the team lately, and Cooper told NHL.com that the Markham, Ontario native had his most physical workout on Monday with the team in Minnesota ahead of their game with the Wild on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center.
"It wasn't a huge battle practice, but there was a little bit of contact and he kept jumping in," Cooper said per NHL.com. "It got to the point where I had to stop the practice and be like, 'Guys, it's OK to hit him, because he needs to get hit.' Then he jumped into some power play stuff too."
The Lightning have managed to stay afloat without one of their top scorers, and are currently 32-18-5 (69 points) and sit in second place in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference.
Stamkos, 23, was selected with the first overall pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Lightning, and in the midst of his sixth season with the team, he has 222 goals, 187 assists and 409 points through 390 career games with Tampa Bay. He'll hope to add the Olympics to his resume.
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