After going 1-0-1 and collecting three of four possible points during a weekend home and away back-to-back set, the Lightning took Monday and Tuesday off. Wednesday, a rejuvenated Bolts squad was back on the ice in preparation for Thursday's home game against the Vancouver Canucks with everyone at their disposal.
Everybody except, well, you know.
Jason Garrison, Ryan Callahan and Jonathan Drouin, who all missed Sunday's game at Carolina with various ailments, wore regular jerseys during Wednesday's practice session and were full participants.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said most, if not all of the aforementioned injured trio could potentially be in the lineup when the Bolts battle the Canucks.
"We should have a good group of guys back," Cooper said. "If we're going to go into football terms, I would say Garrison is probable. Callahan is probable. Drouin is, is there one between questionable and probable?...Stamkos is out. Does that cover it?"
Garrison was struck in the knee by a hard slap shot in the loss at St. Louis a week ago and has missed two-consecutive games. The veteran defenseman, though, showed no ill effects while practicing on Wednesday and paired with his usual defensive partner Andrej Sustr.
Callahan has been held out of action the last four games with a lower-body injury but is nearing 100 percent.
"It was encouraging the way I felt out there," he said following Wednesday's practice.
Of the three, Drouin might be the least ready to play on Thursday, but the 21-year-old forward thinks he could potentially play against the Canucks. He was held out of the Carolina game with an undisclosed injury.
"I feel good," he said.
Cooper was encouraged to see all three on the ice as well as the energy all of his players brought to Wednesday's practice.
"If I could have given them more time off, I would have," Cooper said. "You're kind of at that balance of too much off time and now rust sets in, but that definitely wasn't the case today. You could just tell, guys looked fresher, had a little jump in their step, because as everybody knows, you play 14 games in 25 days, guys are dragging. I like what happened today, and I think two days off was beneficial."
Callahan said the mental break from having a couple days off was just as important as the physical break.
"You're in the grind, and you're watching video every day, you're at practice every day, you're playing a game every other day," he said. "To get a break and just step away from the rink and regroup and re-energize your mind I think is a big part of it. The rest of the body helps too. It was a very productive two days off and a good practice today, so it was good to get this break."
The Lightning will get more rest shortly as they'll have another three-day break following home games versus Vancouver (Thursday) and Pittsburgh (Saturday) and preceding another road trip when they play three games in four nights in Western Canada.
"You look at the way we've traveled this year, I think we've played the most games in the league," Cooper said. "We've played the most road games. It's been a tired group. The last thing we needed to do was stay on the ice, so we gave them a couple days off. You could tell the energy level was high. The ice broke down before the players did. That was a good sign."
