Mitchell Stephens makes an appearance at Thursday's morning skate

The Tampa Bay Lightning received a bit of a boost with the return of Mitchell Stephens for morning skate ahead of tonight's contest against the Chicago Blackhawks (7 p.m. puck drop), the start of a three-game homestand for the Bolts at AMALIE Arena.
Stephens has been out since the second week of the regular season when he sustained a lower-body injury in a 5-2 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on January 23. The 24-year-old center has been skating on his own the past couple weeks but rejoined his teammates for the first time to take part in Thursday's morning skate, doing some light drill work and even getting in on a couple line rushes with Alexander Volkov and Taylor Raddysh.
Stephens will still be out for some time. He's not close to returning to the lineup according to head coach Jon Cooper. But the fact he's skating with his teammates again is a good sign he's on the back end of his rehab timeline.

"It was good to see him out there," Cooper said. "You could tell the guys were excited. Those are tough injuries, but he's done a heck of a job getting back. Conditioning's going to be an issue. I wouldn't say his return to the lineup is imminent. But he's definitely making strides.
Stephens said he's feeling pretty good and his rehab is going well but didn't have an update on a timetable for a return.
"Hopefully shortly here we have a timetable, but for me right now it's to come in and rehab as much as I can and put myself in a good position down the road to come back into the lineup," he said.
In four contests prior to the injury, Stephens tallied an assist and won 65.4 percent of his face-off draws centering the fourth line. He said he was unsure initially when he sustained the injury how severe it would turn out to be. He's since missed the last 24 games.
"After they did all the tests and everything, it became pretty certain surgery was the option," Stephens said. "Everything went well with that. My rehab's been progressing in the right direction, so I'm happy about that. It's a matter of taking the next steps here to prepare myself to come back."
Getting back on the ice is a major step in Stephens' rehab, as much for his mental well-being as figuring out where he is physically. When the team goes on the road, injured players don't often join the trip, instead staying behind and continuing their work toward getting back into a position to play. Sometimes it can get lonely skating alone. Injured players in the past have said it doesn't feel like they're part of the team anymore when they're not around their teammates as much.
Seeing an injured teammate back on the ice can be a lift for the healthy players on the roster too.
"Those guys are big parts of our team. They're family members," Lightning forward Tyler Johnson said. "When you're injured, when it's a long-term injury like that, you're not always with the team. A lot of times you're not going on road trips, you're at the rink at different times of day so you don't really see each other quite as much. We miss those guys. They're our brothers. Once they get back to skating with us, they're around the rink more often, you can reconnect with them and talk to them. It's a big boost for everybody."

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