Steven Stamkos will not be in the lineup for the Tampa Bay Lightning when they play the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.
"We haven't ruled him out for the series but he's not going to play tonight," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
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Stamkos made his postseason debut in Game 3 on Wednesday and scored a goal in Tampa Bay's 5-2 win. He played five shifts totaling 2:47 of ice time and didn't play in the final 46:18 of the game, though he remained on the bench for most of the second period and all of the third.
The Lightning have won the past two games after losing Game 1, 4-1.
Teams that have a 2-1 lead in a best-of-7 Cup Final (since 1939) are 42-11 (79.3 percent) winning the series. The Lightning were ahead 2-1 in the 2015 Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks and lost the next three games to lose the series.
"While we prepare today it's a little bit different just because we've been through it before," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "It's the same type of situation. I don't know if our team is playing the exact same way. I like the way our team is playing, and we just want to keep rolling."
The Stars are the only team this postseason to win a best-of-7 series after trailing 2-1. They won Games 4, 5 and 6 against the Calgary Flames in the Western Conference First Round.
Here are 3 keys for Game 4: