defenseman Victor Hedman and Selke-caliber forward Ondrej Palat. Both players were injured on the recent road trip and expected to miss at least the next two games.Hedman suffered an undisclosed upper-bod

TAMPA James Van Riemsdyk Jersey Womens , Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning return home Tuesday from a five-game road trip to host a playoff rematch against the New Jersey Devils.But Tampa Bay faces the Devils without Norris Trophy winning defenseman Victor Hedman and Selke-caliber forward Ondrej Palat. Both players were injured on the recent road trip and expected to miss at least the next two games.Hedman suffered an undisclosed upper-body injury in the second period against Vegas on Friday when he was hit by Ryan Reaves and fell awkwardly in to the boards, appearing to injury his shoulder/back area. Palat was also injured against the Golden Knights midway through the third period when he blocked a shot off his foot.Article continues below ...Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said on Monday that Hedman, who was schedule to be evaluated at the end of the week, could now miss more time than originally thought while the team is waiting on further testing to determine Palat’s absence while listing him as day-to-day.“Victor will be re-evaluated here, but we are not expecting him back right away,” Cooper said. “And Palat we are waiting for some more information.”Both players have been ruled out for through the end of the week while a pair of weekend road games at Montreal and Ottawa look “doubtful” at this point, according to the Lightning coach.“Anytime you miss one game, I think that’s a lot of time,” Cooper said. “But the games will add up here, especially we’re playing every second night now and games are back-to-backs, when you miss a week or two that means you are missing six or seven games Matt Cullen Jersey Womens , which is tough. But both guys are healing and hopefully they’ll be back soon.”While the Lightning are dealing with injuries, the Devils are getting healthier.Goaltender Corey Schneider, who has been out since the start of the season, has returned from a three-game conditioning assignment in the American Hockey League and will join the team to start the seven-game road trip that will keep the Devils away from Prudential Center through Nov. 11. New Jersey head coach John Hynes said Schneider will make an appearance at some point on the trip. Eddie Lack, who had been serving as the backup to Keith Kinkaid, was sent to Binghamton on Monday for a conditioning assignment.“He’s going to play, but right now what I think is important is that we take it day-by-day with the goalies,” Hynes told the Bergen County Record. “Keith is going to go [against the Lightning] and then we’ve got Wednesday into Thursday to see where he is. But we do have a back-to-back coming up and we’ve got a lot of games coming up.”In addition to Schneider, injured defenseman Ben Lovejoy was back at practice for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury on Oct. 28 while forward Drew Stafford practiced with the team for the first time since Oct. 20 when he suffered an upper-body injury against Philadelphia on Oct. 20.While Stafford will remain behind to start the trip, he is expected to join the team at some point. Lovejoy, along with forward Jesper Bratt – who has been out with a broken jaw – will also travel as he awaits clearance to return to full contact. COLUMBUS Derek Grant Jersey Womens , Ohio (AP) After dropping the first two playoff games at home in overtime, the Washington Capitals picked up momentum that only got stronger as they took down the Columbus Blue Jackets in four straight.Now they’ll strive to keep the intensity high as they advance to a second-round rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins.The Capitals, who manhandled the Blue Jackets 6-3 on Monday to cap the opening round series, are looking to avenge second-round playoff losses to Pittsburgh in each of the past two seasons.”I can’t wait to take a step forward,” said Washington star forward Alex Ovechkin, who had two goals on Monday, including his 50th playoff tally. ”They know how to play, they know the pressure. It’s a huge series for us.”Goaltender Braden Holtby relieved a struggling Philipp Grubauer in Game 2 and was great the rest of the way. He had 35 saves Monday in a game in which his team was outshot 38-28. Fifteen of the saves were in the third period when the desperate Blue Jackets turned up the heat.”(He’s) been fantastic,” Ovechkin said. ”He’s stepping up big-time. He’s top goalie in the league, and he showed it today and he showed it in the series.”For his part, Washington coach Barry Trotz wasn’t ready to talk about Pittsburgh yet after a taut opening-round series.”Please let me breathe Erik Karlsson Jersey Womens ,” he said. ”We haven’t taken a breath since this started.”Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist, and Dimitry Orlov, Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller also scored Monday for Washington, which never trailed in OT in Game 5 on Saturday. The Capitals won each of the three games in Columbus.One of the stories for Washington was its ability to defend Columbus’ power play. After the Blue Jackets went 4 for 8 with a man advantage in the first two games, the Caps held them to 0 for 16 in the last four. Meanwhile, Washington took good advantage of Columbus penalties, scoring on the power play in each of the six games.”I think going into the year there wasn’t a lot of people who said we would finish first in the Metro, and we did that,” Trotz said. ”And it’s just creating a pretty consistent culture, and it’s having good players too. It was a tremendous test for us. We didn’t get off to a good start and had to dig ourselves out.”Trotz said he leaned on veterans Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom www.ducksshoponline.com , Evgeny Kuznetsov and others to keep the Capitals on an even keel through the tumult of the season.”We’ve had lots of different adversity through this year and in the past, and we’ve grown up a little bit in some ways,” he said. ”We understand that our core group is really, really strong, they believe in each other. We’ve got a lot of young guys in the room. We’ve had to rely on our core to push us forward, and we have.”—