(SportsNetwork.com) - The Tampa Bay Lightning will have to wait until after the Olympic break to get star centerman Steven Stamkos back, but the club hopes to avoid a fourth loss in five games when it hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs without him on Thursday night. Stamkoss teammate, Lightning captain Martin St. Louis, was named as his replacement for Sochi earlier on Thursday. You can listen to all of the action live on TSN Radio 1050 at 7:30pm. There was talk earlier this week that Stamkos would return for Saturdays home game against Detroit, the Lightnings final tilt before the NHL goes on hiatus for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but on Wednesday it was announced that the sniper has not been cleared for game action by Dr. Ira Gutentag. The decision not only postpones Stamkos return to the Lightning, but also will prevent him from representing Team Canada at the Winter Games. The 23-year-old suffered a fractured tibia in a game against Boston on Nov. 11 and has missed the last 39 games while recovering. Stamkos was tied for the NHL lead in goals (14) and points (23) before the setback. "After reviewing the CT scan this afternoon, Dr. Gutentag made it clear to me and to Steven that the tibia is not completely healed and therefore he should not be participating in game action at any time in the near future," said Steve Yzerman, who is the general manager of the Lightning and the executive director of Team Canada. "Although the doctor was very pleased to this point with the healing process, he explained that the callus surrounding the fracture site is not 100 percent consolidated, and Steven will not be cleared to play in a game until that happens. It was a pretty clear cut decision, no gray areas at all." Stamkos will continue to rehabilitate and is expected to be re-evaluated in 2- to-3 weeks. The Lightning will resume play after the Olympic break on Feb. 27 at Nashville. "Today is obviously very disappointing for me," Stamkos said. "I honestly believe that we did everything possible in order to have my injured leg ready in time for the Olympics, but I realize you cant force healing." St. Louis will be participating at his second Olympics and first since the 2006 Turin Games. The 38-year-old winger has 25 goals and 54 points to lead Tampa this season. The Lightning have performed extremely well without Stamkos in the lineup over the last few months and they enter Thursday in second place in the Atlantic Division. However, Tampas 1-3-0 record over a recent four-game road trip has helped the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens move within three points of the Lightning for the divisions second spot. The top-three teams in each division receive automatic bids to the playoffs. The Lightning downed the Canadiens 2-1 in overtime Saturday in Montreal before losing in regulation Tuesday night at Minnesota. Darcy Kuemper stopped 34 Tampa Bay shots in the Wilds close victory in St. Paul. Valtteri Filppula scored in the loss and Ben Bishop made 24 saves for the Lightning. "We worked harder (than the last game) we just didnt work smarter," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "That was a big problem." The Lightning fell to 16-13-2 as the guest after its recent trip, but will play their final two games before the break at Tampa Bay Times Forum, where they are 16-6-3 this season. The Maple Leafs will try to rebound on Thursday after having a three-game winning streak halted with Tuesdays 4-1 loss at Florida. David Clarkson provided the lone goal for Toronto, while Jonathan Bernier allowed three goals on 47 shots in the setback. "The word to describe it is, we didnt have anything going except one person in the lineup is outstanding for our hockey club and that was our goaltender," Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. "We didnt seem to have any jump or passion to play the game, and its kind of mind-boggling right now." After completing its two-game tour of the Sunshine State tonight, the Leafs will complete their pre-Olympic schedule on home ice when they host Vancouver on Saturday. Toronto is 20-10-1 as the home team this season compared to a sub-par 10-12-5 mark as the guest. The Leafs recorded a 3-2 regulation win over the visiting Lightning on Jan. 28, as Bernier stopped 40-of-42 shots and Nazem Kadri provided two goals for Toronto. It was the first of four scheduled meetings between the clubs this season and it was Torontos sixth win in the last eight meetings against the Bolts. The Lightning have won two straight and five of the last seven meetings in Central Florida. Stitched Tigers Jerseys .Y. -- AJ Allmendingers journey is almost complete. Custom Detroit Tigers Jerseys . “Im not sure well get Melky Cabrera at all,” said Gibbons. The 29-year-old left fielder struggled all season with knee and hamstring problems. Cabrera was first on the disabled list from June 27-July 20 with tendinitis in his left knee. https://www.cheaptigers.com/. Bookies were offering odds of 13/1 before kickoff that the home team Houston Dynamo would prevail by three goals to nil. Fake Tigers Jerseys . Canadas 5-1 loss to Finland in the semifinal ranks as the tournaments most-watched game with a record 2.7 million viewers, the largest ever for a World Juniors game played outside of North America, and winning Saturday as the most-watched program on Canadian television. Cheap Tigers Jerseys . Chile applied pressure in midfield right from the beginning, challenging aggressively and continually surging forward. Eduardo Vargas beat the offside trap and fired home a stinging shot for Chiles opening goal in the fifth minute.PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkins favourite running mate is serving a five-game NHL suspension. No matter. The Pittsburgh Penguins star can handle things by himself when he needs to. Malkin scored in his return from a lower-body injury, Sidney Crosby added his 16th goal, and the Penguins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 on Monday night. Pittsburgh won its sixth straight home game behind 32 saves by Marc-Andre Fleury and some vintage work by Malkin. The Russian missed Pittsburghs previous two games after hurting himself in a game-day skate on Thursday. He appeared to be just fine when he bulled his way toward the Columbus net 4:16 into the second period for his eighth goal of the season. Malkin brushed off defenceman Jack Johnson and then deftly poked a shot past the outstretched stick of goalie Curtis McElhinney. Not bad for a guy who sometimes struggles when separated from linemate James Neal, who served the first game of the suspension he received for kneeing Bostons Brad Marchand in the head during a loss on Saturday. "Theres no doubt theyre good together," Crosby said. "Theyre both really good players. When they dont have each other, theyre capable of making plays, too." Crosby pushed his point total to an NHL-best 43 when a centring pass from Pascal Dupuis deflected off Crosbys leg and into the net 8:52 into the third. "It looked like that was the only way I was going to score tonight the way it was going," Crosby said. "I had some really pretty chances that didnt go in ... that second one ended up being important for us." Matt Calvert scored with less than a minute left for Columbus, spoiling Fleurys shutout bid. McElhinney made 28 saves but the Blue Jackets struggled again in Pittsburgh. The Penguins have won all three meetings this season by a combined score of 9-3. "You never want to go 0-3 against a division rival," Calvert said. "Theyre four-point games, and you lose a lot of points in the race." Fleury was sharp when tested, though the Penguins did an excellent job of keeping the Blue Jackets from spending too much time in his face.dddddddddddd There were few close calls by the Blue Jackets after the opening 10 minutes. Fleurys only mistake came when he narrowly missed scoring a goal into an empty net with a minute to play, inadvertently sparking a sequence that led to Calvert getting loose for his second goal of the season with 56 seconds remaining. Pittsburgh, which allowed two goals to Boston in the final minute on Saturday, didnt collapse this time. "The main thing is we got the win, got the two points," Fleury said. "Thats what matters." The Blue Jackets are hoping to take a step forward this season after moving over to the Eastern Conference following 13 mostly dismal seasons in the West. Injuries, however, have slowed their development. Columbus is missing forwards Marion Gaborik and Nathan Horton, defenceman James Wisniewski, and reigning Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky. Gaborik and Bobrovsky are out until after the new year. Horton is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury. The Blue Jackets had won three of four, including consecutive shutouts over Tampa Bay and Minnesota, to climb within three games of .500. They controlled play at the outset, controlling the puck for long stretches but had trouble generating solid scoring chances. "We didnt have clean shooting lanes," Columbus coach Todd Richards said. "They created a lot of second chances, it seems like they created rebounds off Macs pads, and it seems like our shots were caught or hit (Fleury) in the chest." In addition to Neal, the Penguins also played without defencemen Paul Martin, Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi. Orpik is sidelined indefinitely after being knocked out by Bostons Shawn Thornton on Saturday. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said Monday that Orpik is "doing quite well" but issued no timetable for his return. NOTES: The Blue Jackets scratched Wisniewski, D Tim Erixon and forward Jack Skille. ... Pittsburgh also scratched forward Harry Zolnierczyk and D Brian Dumoulin. ... The Penguins are 8-1 when they have been outshot. ' ' '