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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos received a warm welcome when he returned to Tampa Bay on Monday night with the Nashville Predators.

Stamkos was selected by Tampa Bay with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NHL draft. He spent his first 16 seasons with the Lightning before signing a $32 million, four-year contract (US) with the Predators in free agency.

Stamkos was a two-time Stanley Cup winner with his first NHL team. He was named captain in 2014. The forward is Tampa Bay’s career leader in points (1,137), goals (555) and games played (1,082).

The 34-year-old Stamkos was honoured at the first media timeout in his return to Amalie Arena, 6:07 into the game. The Lightning showed a 90-second video featuring highlights from Stamkos’ career, including lifting the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021.

Stamkos then took a lap around the ice, waving his stick in recognition of the standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 19,092.

“He came here as an 18-year-old, with the weight of his everything on his shoulders — and in the end, he delivered,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who took over on March 25, 2013, late in Stamkos’ fifth season with Tampa Bay. “He did everything we asked of him for many, many years.”

Stamkos is off to a slow start in his new home. He had one goal and no assists in his first eight games with Nashville.

Being a visitor in the rink he called home for 16 seasons was an odd feeling for Stamkos.

“It’s not something that you really know, I think, until you go through it,” he said after the morning skate.

“Obviously, the excitement level (is high) to be back in the city and in this building where there’s been so many amazing memories for a really long time.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani wasn’t on the team bus from Dodger Stadium to Los Angeles International Airport because he was getting tests Saturday night after partially separating his left shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series.

So the Japanese star reached out in a group chat with fellow Dodgers players to erase any doubts over his status.

“The text just like literally said: `I can play,’” infielder Max Muncy recalled Monday. “I mean, there was more to it than that.”

True to his word, Ohtani remained in the lineup in his regular leadoff slot as the designated hitter for Game 3 of the World Series with Los Angeles holding a 2-0 lead over the New York Yankees.

Ohtani was the only Dodgers starter wearing a warmup jacket during pregame introductions and high-fived teammates with his right hand. A black wrapping was visible over his left shoulder.

He didn’t swing in his first plate appearance, taking four balls from Clarke Schmidt. Ohtani kept his left arm at an angle over his chest while at first base, hand holding his collar, and held it there while rounding the bases on Freddie Freeman’s two-run homer.

Muncy said Ohtani wrote the text himself in English without assistance from interpreter Will Ireton.

“We all just put it to the side at that moment,” Muncy remembered. “We all said: `All right, he’s got us. We’ll be ready for him to be in the lineup.’”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t get the text message — “that group chat is for us — that’s for the players,” Muncy said — and wasn’t aware of it until Monday.

“Would have been helpful if I was on that thread. I would have slept better Saturday night,” Roberts said with a smile.

Ohtani got hurt sliding into second base when he was caught stealing to end the seventh inning of Saturday night’s 4-2 victory in Los Angeles.

Roberts said Ohtani’s shoulder was popped back into place by the athletic training staff at the ballpark and an MRI showed no structural damage. He wasn’t sure whether the injury will heal on its own or any procedure would be needed after the Series.

Asked whether Ohtani received medication, an injection or was being taped up, Roberts said “it’s all of the above on the treatment and stuff. The tape is just protecting and stabilizing, not really limiting.”

Ohtani took swings off a tee in a Yankee Stadium batting cage Sunday night and was hitting balls 102 mph, which changed Roberts’ mood to “joy.”

“He was very adamant that he was going to play,” Roberts said. “Obviously, there’s some discomfort.”

A separated shoulder is subject to recurrence. Roberts said he doubted Ohtani will attempt any more stolen bases during the Series.

“If you keep the best player in the game in the lineup, that’s usually good for your team,” Muncy said. “Obviously, it’s a big guy to have in there. It helps a lot. He’s had some big moments for us, and we’re obviously expecting a couple more big moments out of him.”

With the Dodgers chasing their eighth championship and second in five years, Walker Buehler was scheduled to start Game 3 for Los Angeles in the best-of-seven Series.

Ohtani was 0 for 3 with a walk in Game 2. The likely NL MVP is 1 for 8 in the first two games of the Fall Classic and is batting .260 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in his first postseason in the majors.

“It was very tough in the moment to see him in pain like that,” Muncy said. “We were two innings away from winning that ballgame. We knew we had to refocus. Obviously, it sucks seeing Sho in that kind of pain, but we still had a job to do in the moment.

“After the game we all checked on him to see how he was doing. It was like a buffet line going in there to see how he’s doing. Yeah, it was tough in the moment, but we refocused to win the game.”

A two-time AL MVP with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani joined the Dodgers last December for a record $700 million, 10-year contract.

The 30-year-old slugger hit .310 with 54 homers, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases, becoming the first player with at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season. The two-way star did not pitch this season while recovering from elbow surgery on Sept. 19, 2023, and has been limited to designated hitter.

“You see him walk off holding (his arm) like that, obviously that’s a concern. But hopefully he is OK,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Game 3. “We want to all be out here competing with and against the best, and obviously Shohei embodies that. So hopefully everything’s OK, and we’ll get to go compete against him.”

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AP MLB:

OSHU CITY, Japan (AP) — Hundreds of fans filed into a public viewing center in Shohei Ohtani’s hometown in northern Japan on Tuesday morning — the country is 13 hours ahead of Yankee Stadium — to cheer the country’s top celebrity in Game 3 of the World Series.

Fans lined up outside the Oshu City Cultural Center, a 500-seat auditorium, on a perfect fall morning to watch their local hero in a live telecast. They were there an hour before the game started.

Many came dressed in Dodger Blue — caps or jerseys — and were supplied with various noisemakers, including thunder sticks. The hall was adorned with posters announcing Ohtani as “The Pride of Oshu City.”

Ohtani, playing two days after dislocating his left shoulder in Game 2, drew a walk on his first at-bat. That drew wild cheers from the 250 fans attending, who chanted “Go, Go. Shohei.” Then came even more cheers when the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead on Freddie Freeman’s home run.

“He’s more like a Japanese treasure than just a local (treasure),” said fan Hiromitsu Kikuchi. “I think he has passed beyond the hometown and is more like world-class. We have never had a star player like this before from our hometown.”

Among the mostly older fans were about 20 children from the kindergarten that Ohtani attended. They came equipped with small flags emblazoned with Ohtani’s smiling face.

Several fans said they were worried Ohtani might not play but set out from home when they got the good news.

“I came to see Ohtani because the television news reported that he would play,” said fan Tadashi Onodera. “It’s fantastic. We are proud to have such a player from out hometown.”

This is the town where Ohtani played Little League, starred as a pitcher and hitter at Hanamaki Higashi High School, and became the favorite son of Iwate Prefecture, a mountainous region abutting the Pacific Ocean.

His hometown is located about 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Tokyo, a largely rural place far from the capital, its hundreds of skyscrapers and high-end prosperity.

All eyes at the viewing were on the Dodgers superstar — and his left shoulder. His injury briefly cast a pall and flipped Japan’s mood from magic to morose.

Then came relief. The magic returned as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts started Ohtani as the designated hitter and leadoff hitter in Game 3, what local fans and all of baseball wanted to see.

“I was concerned (about the injury), but believed it would be okay,” said Masatoshi Honmyo, another local fan. “I would say he is a hero.”

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