Jon Cooper provides update on Brayden Point; the news is not good
Brayden Point suffered an undisclosed lower body injury during game 7 against the Leafs. Even after not playing round 2 and having 9 additional days off between the 2nd and 3rd round, he is still not close to returning.
Point was seen skating at Madison Square Garden this morning for around 25 minutes, working on some stick handling and light skating exercises, which is progress considering he hadn't skated much, if at all since the injury happened. At one point during his brief skate though, he appeared to lose and edge on a turn and slid into the corner, where he remained on the ice for a minute before slowly getting up.
Jon Cooper noted that things such as Point's wipe out are frustrating to Point, given that he is "determined to return". Cooper also said that Point will play hockey again, but that he is not sure if it will be this year - effectively ruling him out of the Conference Finals.
Point not being able to play is a massive loss to a Lightning team looking for the three-peat given he had produced at a point-per-game pace the last two playoffs (56 points in 56 games) and plays in all situations. His vacancy at center hasn't been felt yet thanks to the play of Cirelli and the emergence of Ross Colton and Nick Paul so far.
