Lightning lose one of their top defenseman for the season and possibly more.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have suffered a devastating loss to their line up.

One of the Lightning's top defenseman, Anton Stralman, has suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left fibula and as a result is out "indefinitely." Stralman suffered the injury on Friday night when he was battling for position in front of the Lightning net with Islanders forward Anders Lee, who out muscled him and caused him to fall awkwardly. It looked bad when it happened, the toe-end of Stralman's skate stuck into the ice as he was falling, and his weight fell back onto his leg, forcing it to bend awkwardly, resulting in the fracture.

Stralman is a member of the Lightning's top paring, and as a result was responsible for a whopping 22:20 of ice time every night, and had missed only a single game this entire season. Now it looks like Stralman could miss the rest of the regular season and the playoffs, although Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is holding out hope that he could return if the Lightning can advance in the playoffs.

There's no sugar coating an injury this serious to a player as important as Stralman at this time of the season, it's a massive blow to the Lightning's hopes of another run at the Cup.

[pub]