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Halpern Continues To Work Way Back

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Jeff Halpern knows he's not ready to return to the Lightning lineup - yet.

But that time inches closer each day.

The veteran center has missed the first two months of the season as he recovers from reconstructive knee surgery stemming from a ruptured tendon suffered in May at the World Championships. After being cleared to return to full contact, however, he has to get himself into game shape and get himself up to game speed before he can be considered ready to play.

"The knee is fine, I've been cleared to do anything with the knee," said Halpern, who worked on puck battles with assistant coach Wes Walz before practice Monday, working on starting and stopping quickly. "They always say it's tough to get up to speed when you miss training camp, but I've missed three or four months."

Halpern also said his return doesn't just depend on being healthy enough to play.

"There's a lot of good players on this roster," he said. "Not only do I have to get back and be ready to play, I have to earn a spot, so that will be a challenge."

INJURY RETURNS: LW Gary Roberts left practice early Monday after he said he pulled a groin muscle. Roberts had missed four games with an upper-body injury before returning for Saturday's game at Colorado.

While Roberts appears to be out, D Marek Malik is set to return after missing two games with a lower-body injury.

LINE SHUFFLES: Interim coach Rick Tocchet altered the line combinations for practice Monday, moving Jussi Jokinen to center between LW Vinny Prospal and RW Radim Vrbata, while rookie C Steven Stamkos worked with RW Mark Recchi and LW Steve Downie. The fourth line likely will have Adam Hall at center between Ryan Craig and Evgeny Artyukhin.

"We're not getting much from the other lines in terms of scoring chances, so we're trying to move around some people, maybe give Downie a few more minutes. It seems like he's a little pepper pot, so maybe we'll get him going in there a little bit," Tocchet said.

Erik Erlendsson

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