Tag: victor hedman

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs have played the first two games of their first round Stanley Cup playoff series and the outcomes of both games couldn’t have been more different.

In the first game the Maple Leafs looked lost as they were thoroughly dominated by the Lightning on the Leafs’ home ice, but the situation was completely reversed in Game 2 when the Leafs had arguably an even more dominant performance than that of the Lightning in Game 1.

Given how poorly his team faired in their second outing it should come as no surprise that Lightning head coach Jon Cooper will be looking to make adjustments ahead of Game 3 on Saturday night, but Cooper hinted at a potentially gigantic change to his lineup on Saturday.

Cooper indicated that we could see the return of massive Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman on the blue line tonight, although he did not confirm that officially instead listing Hedman as a gametime decision. More specifically, Cooper indicated that Hedman would take warmups with the Lightning tonight, something he did not do before Game 2, and that they would make their decision on his status at that point.

Additionally, Hedman was spotted on the ice with his teammates on Saturday and even participated in the drills, which to me is only more evidence of the fact that Hedman will likely make his return this evening.

The Maple Leafs manhandled the Lightning in Game 2 with the Lightning’s blue line severely depleted, and the Lightning will no doubt be hoping that they can temper the Leafs offensive onslaught with the return of Hedman on defense.