Twelve Lightning players - and head coach Jon Cooper - will be heading to their respective camps for the World Cup of Hockey next week.
Wing Ryan Callahan should have been one of them.
But Callahan, a two-time Olympian for Team USA, had to pull out of the international tournament in late June due to late hip surgery, which is expected to sideline him through the first month of the season. The World Cup runs from Sept 17-Oct. 1 in Toronto.
"It's really tough," Callahan said Tuesday by phone. "It's definitely disappointing that I'm going to miss that.