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Bolts' Heward Hazy But OK

AP Photo

Tampa Bay's Jamie Heward is taken off the ice on a stretcher after being checked into the boards by Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin during the third period of an NHL hockey game Thursday.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 3, 2009

Updated: 01/03/2009 01:41 am

TAMPA - Jamie Heward walked down the hallway outside the Lightning locker room Friday afternoon looking for a shower and a clean shirt.

The Lightning defenseman had just arrived after spending Thursday night at Sipley Hospital in Washington for precautionary reasons after he was taken off the Verizon Center ice on a stretcher. Once it was determined Heward didn't suffer any structural damage to his neck or spine, he was cleared to return home Friday morning.

Just that Heward walked around the locker room area was a sense of relief after he was diagnosed with a concussion following a hit into the boards from Capitals star forward Alex Ovechkin.

No penalty was called on the play, and there will be no disciplinary action on the league's part, something both the team and Heward say is fair.

"In my opinion, he's probably one of the cleanest players in the NHL as far as being honest," Heward said of Ovechkin. "He'll play hard on you, but now that I know it was him, I know it wasn't intentional. I played with him for two years and we were pretty tight when I played there, so I totally agree and think it was an accident."

For Heward, 38, piecing together the events of the past 24 hours is just the first step on a long road back to normalcy that he thinks could take time.

"If today is any indication of how I'm going to feel for the next little while, it's going to be a while," said Heward, who has had previous concussions in his career. "Judging from my night in the hospital and the flight home, even the taxi ride, I didn't feel good at all Friday. The more I'm trying to think about things, my head, it's more confusing what's happening and where to go from here. So I'm going to take some time, relax and try to get my feet under me."

With Heward out indefinitely, Tampa Bay is left with five healthy defensemen heading into tonight. Paul Ranger and Lukas Krajicek are both considered questionable for tonight's game against Carolina, with each suffering from undisclosed upper-body injuries that kept them out of Thursday's game in Washington.

The Lightning already have Matt Smaby and Vladimir Mihalik up on an emergency basis to play on a patchwork defense.

The team is expected to announce it has recalled Ty Wishart, who was acquired from San Jose in the Dan Boyle trade, from AHL Norfolk.

The Lightning are looking at fielding a defensive squad tonight in which half the players were in the minor leagues as recently as last week.

"It's tough, we are trying to patch some things back there," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said. "Now we give some of the guys from the minors a chance to play. We are going to have to change a few things back there, but we are not going to use this as any kind of an excuse because there's a game tonight that we have to win if we are going to get back in this."

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

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