Lightning confirm Stamkos will likely miss 4 months

The Tampa Bay Lightning confirmed Thursday that superstar forward Steven Stamkos will miss approximately four months after having surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus.

Missing a significant portion of the season for the third time in four years, Stamkos' targeted return is mid-March, leaving just a handful of games on the regular-season schedule.

Stamkos was off to one of the best starts in his career before suffering the injury in Tuesday's game versus the Detroit Red Wings. He scored his ninth goal and collected 20th point before suffering the injury in his 17th game of the season.

The Lightning captain missed 37 games with a broken leg suffered in the 2013-14 season. He missed the remainder of the regular season and essentially the entire postseason last year when he was diagnosed with blood clots in April.