Steven Stamkos isn't giving up on this season.

While his Tampa Bay Lightning prepare for Game 1 of a first-round series against Detroit, the captain remains in hospital following vascular surgery to fix a blood clot.

Alex Killorn, one of several players to visit Stamkos on Monday, was told to help get the team as far as possible so as to leave the door open for a late-playoff return.

"You can tell he wants to be there (on the ice)," Killorn told Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. "In the case he could come back, he really wants to make sure we go back to the final to give him a chance to play again this season. That was kind of his message, 'Just go to the finals and maybe I'll see you guys.'"

Stamkos was given a timeline of one-to-three months, meaning it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Without him and Anton Stralman in the lineup, however, the task of repeating as Eastern Conference champions won't be an easy one.

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