Stamkos out indefinitely with a lateral meniscus tear

Update:

The Lightning announced early Wednesday evening that Steven Stamkos has a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee.

“We are in the process of evaluating options for repair and rehabilitation and will release more information as it becomes available,” general manager Steve Yzerman said in a released statement.

I’m no doctor. But here’s what I can gather. He has a tearing of

Update:

According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, Steven Stamkos has been sent back to Tampa for further evaluation, leaving the road trip after playing two games, with three games remaining. He will likely not return to the lineup on this trip.

Joe also mentioned that according to Jon Cooper, the injury is not reminiscent of the tibia injury that happened three years ago in November:

Coach Jon Cooper said after Tuesday’s game there was hope the injury to Stamkos was “minor,” pointing out it’s “not anything like” what happened almost exactly three years ago in Boston, when the All-Star broke his right tibia Nov. 11, 2013, forcing him to miss 45 games.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Cooper said.

Speculation from Elliotte Friedman is that Stamkos is suffering from a torn meniscus, which is the cartilage above the knee:

https://twitter.com/friedgehnic/status/798962381967785987

Elliotte Friedman @FriedgeHNIC

Regarding Steven Stamkos, word is it’s a meniscus issue. But not sure how serious yet. Hopefully not very, guy deserves good news.

Stamkos has been off to a blazing start this season. It’s been apparent in the first 16 games of the season that he’s been playing like someone without a contract weighing on his mind and with injuries behind him.

So it’s difficult to even consider that all of that might be cut short. Stamkos went down awkwardly in the first period in Tuesday’s game against the Red Wings and had a noticeable limp as he was helped off the ice. After the end of the first period, the Lightning announced that the captain has a lower body injury and would not return.

It appears Stamkos favored his right knee of the leg he had surgery on after breaking it three years ago last Friday.

The injury tonight occurred after the Bolts went up 2-0, on goals by Nikita Kucherov (assisted by Stamkos) and Stamkos. Those points elevated Stamkos in the NHL scoring race, tying the league lead with the Jets’ Mark Scheifele with 20 points.

After tonight’s game, the Lightning are off to Buffalo to continue their road trip. We’ll update once we know more, but the Bolts have a scheduled day off tomorrow, according to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News.

If there’s one thing we know about Stamkos, though, is that nothing will break him. The guy broke his right leg, had surgery for a blood clot. So while we know he’ll be back, the question is a matter of when. And how that affects the Bolts moving forward.

Nope, we definitely weren’t wondering that.