Tampa Bay Lightning star defenseman Victor Hedman will miss the upcoming homestand versus New Jersey on Tuesday and Nashville on Thursday as he remains out with an upper-body ailment sustained in the Bolts' 3-2 victory over Vegas Friday.

Hedman took a hard hit from the Golden Knights' Ryan Reaves during a second period power play and helicoptered into the boards. He sat out the remainder of the Vegas game and didn't play the following night when the Lightning fell to Arizona 7-1.

Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said Hedman will also likely miss a road back-to-back set this weekend when the Lightning travel to Montreal (Saturday) and Ottawa (Sunday).

"Victor will get re-evaluated here but not anticipating him back right away," Cooper said.

Also, Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat, who sustained a lower-body injury in the victory over Vegas and didn't play in Arizona, remains day-to-day. Cooper said the team should have more information on the severity of Palat's injury today. His status for the upcoming homestand remains in doubt.

"Victor definitely out for these two games. Palat maybe as well," Cooper said.

Hedman, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, has scored two goals and added two assists in nine games so far this season. He ranks third on the Lightning for average time on ice (20:56) and blocked shots (16) and was part of a Bolts blueline that had only given up 2.22 goals per game (tied for second best in the NHL) prior to the Arizona debacle.

"He kind of drives our offense a little bit so we've got to find a way now to keep up our offense without Victor," Cooper said. "It was really good to see our PK continued. We've got to work some things into our power play here without him. There's a lot of different facets to the game that he contributes to. Our defending, it doesn't look so good against Arizona but for the most part, we've been defending pretty well. Even when we were on our heels a little bit in that Vegas game, we didn't really give them a whole lot of Grade-A chances. I'm okay with that, it's just how are we going to generate some more offense."

Palat is still searching for his first goal in 2018-19 but has five assists and, along with Kucherov, owns the longest assist streak on the Lightning at five games from Oct. 13-21, tying a career high.

Palat missed 26 games last season with a lower-body injury.

"Anytime you miss one game, that's too long," Cooper said. "As the games add up here, especially when we're playing every second night now and games are back-to-backs, you miss a week or two, you're missing six or seven games, which is tough. But, as I said, both the guys are healing and hopefully they'll be back soon."