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Bolts Lose; Heward Suffers Concussion, Out Of Hospital

The Associated Press

Jamie Heyward was temporarily unconscious but left the ice with motion in all extremities, the team said.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

Updated: 01/02/2009 03:00 am

WASHINGTON - New Year's Day looked more like Halloween and Groundhog Day rolled into one for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Lightning had its streak of points in four consecutive games snapped in a 7-4 loss to Washington, which improved to 16-1-1 at Verizon Center.

The team's thoughts, however, weren't totally on the loss after Lightning defenseman Jamie Heward left the ice on a stretcher following a hit from behind by Alex Ovechkin.

With 13:15 left in the third period, Heward crumbled to the ice after Ovechkin pushed the Lightning defenseman's head into the glass. Heward was reportedly unconscious for about 90 seconds and lay face down on the ice for several minutes while being attended to by medical personnel.

A team spokesman said Heward had motion in all his extremities when he left the ice, but was taken to nearby Sibley Hospital for evaluation and stayed overnight after being diagnosed with a concussion. He was released from the hospital today and was headed back to Tampa, the team said. Further tests found there was no damage to his cervical spine.

Ovechkin, who was a teammate of Heward with the Capitals, told Washington reporters he had no intention of hurting Heward. Ovechkin had a look of concern on his face as he watched the events unfold and skated over to the area on the ice where Heward was put on the stretcher.

"It's a hard one to judge and I don't think Ovechkin was intentionally trying to hurt him, to be dirty or anything," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said.

That was the scary part of the night. What had Tocchet concerned for a totally different reason was the team's play in the first period, in which the Capitals scored three times to put the Lightning in a hole they couldn't climb out of. It's a situation he felt was out of the team's system.

"It seemed like we weren't ready to play, again," Tocchet said. "The last time we were in here, they scored three in the first period. And when you are playing a hot team, a first-place team, you can't come into this game not ready to play. Some guys who we are counting on were not ready to play."

It was a rare tough night for goaltender Mike Smith, who allowed a weak wrist shot from Sean Collins to find its way through him for Washington's first goal. Smith also had a pair of giveaways - one off the stick of Marek Malik - that led directly to Capitals goals and wound up allowing a season-high seven goals on 35 shots.

The Lightning twice cut the deficit to a goal, only to see Washington answer on the next shift.

"They took it to us early on, but I thought we battled back," said right wing Marty St. Louis, who finished with three assists. "We stayed with it and tried to climb back out of the hole, but it's hard when you dig yourself that big of a hole."

Jeff Halpern said it all starts from the drop of the puck.

"We came out and didn't have the effort that we needed, we didn't do the things that we wanted to do as far as our gameplan," Halpern said. "That's on the players 100 percent. In the second we played pretty well and the third we played pretty well, but there is no excuse for a team that is seven games under .500 to not really take 20 minutes off, but pay no attention to details, myself included."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835.

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