Tampa Bay Lightning centerman Cedric Paquette has yet to play this season after sustaining an upper-body injury during the final preseason game against the Florida Panthers, but his return to the lineup is imminent.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said Sunday Paquette's issue was no longer the upper-body injury but rather getting back into game shape having been out of game action for about three-and-a-half weeks. During Tuesday's practice session following a day off Monday, Paquette rejoined the Lightning's fourth line for the first time since the injury, skating between Pat Maroon and Luke Witkowski. He also saw significant time on the penalty kill during the Lightning's special teams portion of practice, indicating he might be available as soon as Wednesday when Tampa Bay hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins at AMALIE Arena (8 p.m. puck drop).

The Lightning make their first appearance of the season on NBC's "Wednesday Night Hockey" tomorrow when they host the Penguins at Amalie Arena. 

Who: The Tampa Bay Lightning will host 46 of the 70 living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor at a pre-game ceremony prior to their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins (8 p.m. NBCSN, 970 WFLA). The group features nine honorees from the War on Terrorism, 34 from the Vietnam War, two from the Korean War and one from World War II. 

When the Lightning signed Kevin Shattenkirk as a free agent this summer, the hope was that he could return to the offensive threat he had been earlier in his career with St. Louis. 

Eight games into the 2019-2020 season, it appears that he's done just that. 

Sunday morning's video review of Tampa Bay's 6-2 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche revealed a few missing elements to the team's play, beyond just an inability to score enough goals or keep enough pucks out of their own net.

If you didn't catch Tampa Bay's 6-2 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night at AMALIE Arena, you might look at the box score and think the Lightning must have gotten blown out.

That wasn't the case, however.

While the score was ugly, there was plenty to like about Tampa Bay's game against Colorado, which remains without a regulation loss this season. The Lightning controlled play for stretches of the game. Their beleaguered penalty kill came through with two noteworthy kills against a pretty good power play. And the Bolts created plenty of really good scoring opportunities in a season-high 46-shot effort.

The Lightning were coming off Thursday's win in Boston, a game in which they defended very well during five-on-five play. Unfortunately, they were unable to replicate that performance on Saturday against Colorado.

Three Avalanche goals in 2:49 doomed the Lightning in a 6-2 loss on Saturday night.

Tyson Jost led the charge for Colorado with a hat trick and Pavel Francouz stood tall in goal to snap Tampa Bay's modest two-game winning streak.

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning honored Chase Hartman as the second Lightning Community Hero this season during the first period of tonight's game versus the Colorado Avalanche. Hartman, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, will donate half the funds to Hillsborough County Schools, while the other half will go towards a scholarship for his education.

The last time the Tampa Bay Lightning played at AMALIE Arena, the Rays were just beginning their playoff run and the Buccaneers were flying high at 2-2 and fresh off a 55-point performance and win over the Super Bowl runner-up Rams.

Things sure can change in a hurry.