The Tampa Bay Lightning swept the Florida Panthers in four games in the second round without their best playoff player of the past two years. Brayden Point is slowly but surely recovering from his injury, and the whole team hopes to see him back sooner rather than later.
No one has done better in the 2020 and 2021 spring schedules than Point and his 56 points. It is therefore a huge loss for the “Bolts”, whose performance has not been affected despite everything.
The 26-year-old Albertan was injured when his left leg twisted while chasing a puck in the first period of the final game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Lightning indicated two weeks ago that his condition would be reassessed daily.
“Is Point closer to playing in the third round than he was in the second round? Sure. He is progressing,” head coach Jon Cooper said vaguely at a press conference on Friday.
The pilot himself does not know much about the state of health of Point, who has not put on the skates since his injury.
“There is a plan. We’ll let you know when it starts,” Cooper said.
Stamkos includes
Who better than Steven Stamkos to understand how his teammate is feeling? The captain missed almost the entire playoffs last year, but his team still lifted the Stanley Cup.
“It’s the worst feeling for an athlete, not being able to play, especially at this time of year. This kind of thing happens, it’s unfortunate. Of course we feel bad for “Pointer”. We know how important he is to our team and the caliber of player he is and what he’s done in our last [playoff] runs,” Stamkos said.
“We just hope there is enough time for him to come back and play in the playoffs. The crazy thing is we lost it early in game seven and probably not many people thought we would win that game number 7 and sweep Florida without one of our best players and one of best in the world. You have to give the group credit for sticking together,” added the veteran, who called Point a “warrior on the ice.”
Wednesday is the start of the Western Conference Finals. As of this writing, the Lightning still don’t know who their opponent will be at this stage between the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers.
