Tampa Bay Lightning star Conor Sheary suffered an upper-body injury on Tuesday in their 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. The 31-year-old winger was unable to return in the game, as announced through the team’s official X (formerly Twitter) account.
Update: Conor Sheary has sustained an upper body injury and will not return to tonight's game. #TBLvsMTL
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) November 8, 2023
It was in the first period when Sheary sustained his injury. It remains unclear how the veteran winger suffered the setback. It is possible that the 5-foot-9 player was already lingering and it got aggravated during a shift
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Hence, Sheary’s status is up in the air. Next up on the Lightning's schedule is the Chicago Blackhawks, which is set for Thursday.
Conor Sheary's Potential Replacement vs. Blackhawks
It was an unfortunate development for the Lightning and the two-time Stanley Cup champion forward. He agreed to a three-year, $6 million deal with the team back in July, just hours after the NHL free agency started.
Should Sheary be unavailable, Austin Watson is likely to be tapped to rejoin the lineup, CBS Sports reported.
Watson signed a one-year deal worth $776,665, with the Lightning last October 10, per NHL.com. In the 2022-23 season, he played 75 games with the Ottawa Senators where he tallied nine goals and 11 points.
However, some players could step up in their respective roles. Among them is goaltender Matt Tomkins who is likely to be pumped up after officially getting his first NHL win. The 29-year-old explained why it was a special victory, ESPN reported.
“Everything’s been worth it to get to this point, a lot of questions along the way of ‘am I doing the right thing?’ and ‘is this for me?’ and there’s been a lot of stops in getting here,” Tomkins said. “It’s really special.”
Other players who will need to step up include Nikita Kucherov, Nicholas Paul, Alex Barre-Boulet and Michael Eyssimont.
The Lightning are slight favorites over the Blackhawks although Lightning coach Jon Cooper is unlikely to take Chicago lightly.
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