Martin St. Louis recovering from scary injury

Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis has no timetable for returning from what he called a ''scary'' injury near his left eye. St. Louis is sidelined by facial and nasal fractures sustained last Thursday morning when he was struck in the face by a shot taken in practice by teammate Dominic Moore. St. Louis talked about the incident for the first time between the first and second periods of Tampa Bay's Monday night game against New Jersey. ''I've been hit in the face before ... When that one hit me, I knew I was in trouble,'' St. Louis said. ''I couldn't see out of my left eye, how the blood rushed through the eye. Panic set in. I was very overwhelmed with the possibilities, you know.'' St. Louis is undergoing treatment to improve the vision in the eye, which has shown good improvement since last week. ''I can't see as good as the other eye right now, but there's different factors why,'' St. Louis said. ''The trauma the eye got and the treatment I'm getting on the eye right now is the reason why. It's looking good right now.'' The injury ended St. Louis' consecutive games streak at 499 games. He also required stitches both above and below the eye. ''It's tough because I can't do anything (physical) right now, nothing,'' said St. Louis, who plans to use a visor in future games. St. Louis, who hadn't missed a game since Nov. 15, 2005, at Washington was hit near his left eye when Moore shot wide of the net. He was bleeding profusely when he left the ice at Madison Square Garden and was assisted to the dressing room by a trainer. St. Louis left the arena in an ambulance. St. Louis has nine goals and 22 points in 27 games.