Stamkos suffered a lower-body injury during his first shift in the second period of Tampa Bay's 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Sunday. If Stamkos can't go against the Bruins, the Lightning will lose one of their best scorers and top leaders for a game that's a must-win if the Bolts have any chance to win the Atlantic Division championship and claim the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Despite the setback, Cooper said he's not concerned about Stamkos' availability for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which begin next week. Stamkos is officially listed as day-to-day.
"The player knows his body," Cooper said. "Doctors know what to do. I'm not going to speculate on anything. Stammer's planning on playing in the playoffs and I'm pretty sure he's planning on playing at some point in one of these last three games. It's medical personnel, they'll make the decision with Stammer how he feels. But people shouldn't be concerned."
Stamkos missed his first game of the season March 26 in the Bolts' 4-1 loss to Arizona with what he described as a "nagging" injury. Cooper said he didn't think this latest setback was related to the injury that kept him from playing against the Coyotes.
"He's been getting nicked up here the last little while," Cooper said. "And so if there's a time that we have to sit back and say, 'Okay, this is a time to rest,' this is the time. We need him feeling his best a week and a half from now and not necessarily right now. However we can help that we will."
Stamkos ranks second on the Lightning and tied for 10th in the NHL currently for scoring with 86 points. His 59 assists are a career best and rank tied for fifth in the League. He's also one of the top power-play producers in the NHL with 15 goals on the man-advantage, tied for second most in the League, and 33 power-play points, tied for ninth most in the League.
Stamkos has 27 goals this season and is just two shy of reaching 350 career goals. The 28-year-old center averages 0.52 goals per game for his career.
"I think the main thing is getting him back in the lineup when he's healthy," Lightning forward Tyler Johnson said. "There's no reason to rush anything right now. I don't know anything more than you guys, but Stammer's a big part of our team. He's a guy that's obviously our leader, he's our captain, he's a guy we want on the ice. As fast as we can get him back, that's the best thing possible."
Stamkos has had to deal with unfortunate injury setbacks the last couple of seasons. Two years ago, he missed the final five game of the regular season and all but one playoff game (Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in Pittsburgh) after having surgery to treat a type of Vascular Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (called Effort Thrombosis) near his right collarbone.
Last season, he played only 17 games before suffering a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee, ending his season.
"I don't think you look at the history at all for that," Johnson said when asked if there was concern in the locker room for Stamkos' availability with his recent injury history. "I think you look at it as Stammer's one of our top players when he's out on the ice, but at the same time, if he's out, other guys can step up. We just have to be prepared for whatever does happen."
With or without Stamkos, the Lightning need a victory in Tuesday's game against Atlantic-leading Boston to keep their hopes of a division championship and home-ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs alive. The Bolts have three regular seasons game remaining and trail the Bruins by two points. Boston, however, has four games remaining. Both teams have a ROW of 46, which is the first tiebreaker used when two teams are tied at the end of the regular season. Boston is 3-0-0 against the Lightning and would own the second tiebreaker, head-to-head points earned, if it got that far.
When asked how important the game against Boston is, Cooper said: "Well, it's going to probably have a big determination of which team comes first, let's be honest. We win the game, we're right back in it. They win it, they've probably got it. In the big scope of things, it's game 80.
"But it's a big game 80."
