Per Erik Erlendsson:
Hedman done for at least for the road trip, heading back to Tampa to be evaluated
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) October 19, 2014
The injury appears to be to his right hand, after blocking a shot in the second period on Saturday night in Vancouver. Worst case scenario is likely a broken hand, which you’ll recall from Dan Boyle recently is a 4-6 week injury.
That means he will miss road tilts against the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, and Minnesota wild at the very least. The soonest he would then be back would be 10 days from today on October 28th vs. the Arizona Coyotes.
Depending on Radko Gudas‘ status, we may see Mark Barberio inserted into the lineup, or an 11 defenders/7 forwards alignment at some point on this road trip. A call-up from Syracuse isn’t completely out of the question — Luke Witkowski would likely be the front-runner — but that, too will likely depend on Gudas status moving forward. If Gudas can go, the Lightning still have 7 healthy NHL D.
Fingers crossed that x-rays turn up negative and this is a short-term thing for the Lightning’s top blue-liner.
