{"id":256784,"date":"2026-05-03T17:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256784\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T17:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:16:13","slug":"tampa-bay-lightning-d-victor-hedman-skates-with-scratches-ahead-of-game-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256784\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning D Victor Hedman skates with scratches ahead of Game 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/tampa-bay-lightning\/14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/tampa-bay-lightning\/14\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/victor-hedman\/8475167\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/victor-hedman\/8475167\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Hedman<\/a> skated with the scratches at the team\u2019s optional session Sunday morning ahead of Game 7 against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/montreal-canadiens\/8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/montreal-canadiens\/8\" target=\"_blank\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Head coach Jon Cooper said on Friday that the captain was \u2018going to be an option really soon,&#8221; but did not suit up in the 1-0 overtime win on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The winner of tonight\u2019s game in Tampa Bay will head to Buffalo for Game 1 against the Atlantic Division-winning Sabres on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Victor Hedman still out here with the scratches at optional skate this morning. Jon Cooper meets media at 430 pm ET ahead of Game 7. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hgKSxMUEwL\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/hgKSxMUEwL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PierreVLeBrun\/status\/2050940076088086938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Earlier in the series, Cooper had said Hedman was doubtful to return during the first round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAt some point, I think, but not right now,\u201d Cooper said earlier in the series. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t rule anything out, but I\u2019d put that on the doubtful side for this series.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hedman has been skating after recently rejoining the team following a personal absence, but hasn\u2019t played since March 19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 35-year-old Swede \u2014 a Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP in 2020 \u2014 was limited to 33 games in the regular season, posting one goal and 16 assists after also missing time due to elbow surgery and an undisclosed injury.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman skated with the scratches at the team\u2019s optional session Sunday morning ahead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1623,135,137,136,35326,45303],"class_list":["post-256784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-apple-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-bay-lightning-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-14","tag-victor-hedman-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8475167"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}