{"id":441550,"date":"2026-01-31T21:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441550\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:16:07","slug":"hedman-expected-to-return-from-elbow-injury-for-lightning-at-stadium-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441550\/","title":{"rendered":"Hedman expected to return from elbow injury for Lightning at Stadium Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/victor-hedman-8475167\" title=\"Victor Hedman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Hedman<\/a> is expected to return from an elbow injury for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series against the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS).<\/p>\n<p>The defenseman and Lightning captain was injured during a 6-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 9. Hedman was placed on injured reserve on Dec. 11 and has been recovering from surgery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/topic\/nhl-stadium-series\/tampa-bay-lightning-victor-hedman-has-big-motivation-to-play-in-stadium-series\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Like I said before<\/a>, playing in this game has been a big motivation in me coming back,\u201d Hedman told NHL.com on Saturday. \u201cIt\u2019s up to (coach Jon Cooper) and the trainers, so we\u2019ll see at game time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I felt good out there. All the signs are positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hedman received stick taps from his teammates at center ice at the conclusion of practice here, a clear sign he can play Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think you saw at the end of practice there what happened,\u201d Cooper said minutes later, confirming Hedman\u2019s return. \u201cSo, you know, barring him coming in saying no, which I think is extremely doubtful, most likely [he\u2019ll play].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hedman\u2019s pending return is good news for the Lightning and Team Sweden, who Hedman will represent at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. He is expected to be a key cog for coach Sam Hallam\u2019s team, which plays its opening game of the tournament against host Italy on Feb. 11 (3 p.m. ET; Peacock, USA, CBC Gem, SN, TSN, CBC). Hedman had 12 assists and was averaging 21:05 of ice time for Tampa Bay prior to the injury.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSweden, the country Sweden, can take a huge breath,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA &#8212; Victor Hedman is expected to return from an elbow injury for the Tampa Bay Lightning in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-441550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}