Lightning captain Steven Stamkos out again with lower-body injury

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos will miss his second consecutive game against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night due to a lower-body injury. This injury has Coach Jon Cooper listing Stamkos as day-to-day, and it seems to have occurred when he blocked a shot against the Detroit Red Wings in a 6-4 loss over the weekend. As a result, Stamkos also sat out the following game, a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

The Lightning (1-2) will be concluding their three-game road trip against the Buffalo Sabres (0-2) before heading back to Tampa Bay for a five-game homestand, which starts with a matchup against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

Tampa Bay is dealing with some additional setbacks, including the absence of their starting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who underwent back surgery and is expected to be out for at least another month. Center Tyler Motte is also missing his third game due to an upper-body injury.

With the losses suffered against their Atlantic Division rivals and the team’s injury concerns, Coach Cooper has expressed a sense of urgency for the upcoming game: “To go on this trip this early in the year and get zero points out of teams you’re competing for a playoff spot makes it a little bit of an uphill climb, and that’s not something you want to do early in the year,” he said. “I don’t want to say Game 4s [of the season] are big games, but this is a big one for us.”