TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning will have to overcome star forward Nikita Kucherov’s absence for the next eight to 10 weeks.
The team announced Wednesday that Kucherov had successful surgery for an unspecified lower-body injury on Tuesday.
This is the first time the Lightning have provided a definitive timetable for Kucherov’s return since he left in the third period of Tampa Bay’s overtime win over the Capitals Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C.
The Lightning have lost three of four games since Kucherov was injured and have yet to score a power-play goal in 11 chances without the first-line right wing.
While the Lightning were optimistic Kucherov’s injury wasn’t as serious as the hip surgery in December that forced him to miss the entire 2020-21 regular season, it was expected that he would need surgery.
The Lightning have not said whether the injury has any relation to last year’s, which began with a groin strain Kucherov suffered during the first round of the Lightning’s 2019-20 Stanley Cup run in the Canadian bubbles, then progressed into a torn labrum.
Kucherov bumped into Garnet Hathaway as both players chased the puck near the side boards in the Capitals’ zone, then spun and crouched over in pain, holding his groin area before slowly skating off the ice.
