Shocking Tampa Bay Lightning postseason injury details released!

The Tampa Bay Lightning ultimately fell short in their quest to become the first National Hockey League squad since the New York Islanders of the early 1980's to three-peat as Stanley Cup champions. Despite overcoming series deficits of 3-2 and 0-2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers respectively, they simply ran out of gas against the powerful Colorado Avalanche. 

Sunday night's victory over the Lightning at Amalie Arena gave Colorado their first title since the legendary moment in which captain Joe Sakic immediately handed the Stanley Cup to veteran defenseman Ray Bourque in 2001. It also brought to an end an unbelievably streak of successful postseason hockey for the Lightning, who had won 11 straight rounds after their shocking sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019. 

As is customary, teams typically don't reveal the true nature of the injuries that their players battled through. But one look at the injury list for the Lightning from this postseason is truly eye opening. Of course, the most obvious injury was that of star forward Brayden Point, who was hurt in Game 7 of Round 1 against Toronto. The injury was revealed to have been a "significant" quad tear, according to GM Julien BriseBois.

Point missed the next ten games, and would return for the first two games of the championship round, though he wouldn't suit up again. 

Tampa's full injury list:

- Anthony Cirelli suffered an AC joint sprain that will require surgery
- Ryan McDonagh had a 'mangled' finger after blocking a shot in the NYR series
- Pierre-Édouard Bellemare battled through a meniscus injury suffered during the regular season
- Nick Paul had both an AC joint & MCL sprain
- Branden Hagel played through a foot fracture
- Corey Perry suffered an AC joint sprain 
- Nikita Kucherov played with an injured meniscus

You can't say that hockey players aren't true warriors.