John Cooper shares bad news on Victor Hedman ahead of Game 1.

The Tampa Bay Lightning will be entering their opening round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens without their leader on the ice.

Lightning head coach John Cooper has officially confirmed that Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman is not currently available to play, meaning that the Lighting will not have their captain when the playoffs get underway for them later today. Cooper did confirm that Hedman has begun skating on his own and did add that Hedman's status could change in the future, but obviously this is a tough break for the Lightning given the circumstances.

Although the news is bad news to be sure, there were some positive signs for the Lightning on Sunday morning ahead of Game 1 against the Canadiens. During what was an optional morning skate for all players on the Lightning roster, the aforementioned Victor Hedman made a brief appearance and skated around while working with the puck.

Given Cooper's comments regarding Hedman's status I do not want to read too much into this, as Cooper made it sound like Hedman was not ready to return, but it has to come as a positive sign that Hedman has progressed to this point at the very least.

That being said Hedman is coming off of what may have been the worst National Hockey League season of his career, one in which he had 1 goal and 16 assists for 17 points over just 33 games played this season. Whether or not Hedman can return to the form that made him a force to be reckoned with on the blue line does remain to be seen.