TAMPA - Just walking around the hallways near the Lightning locker room had to be considered a major accomplishment for Lightning defenseman Jamie Heward after experiencing a frightening scene on the ice of the Verizon Center Thursday night.

Heward was put on a flat board and carried off the ice on a stretcher following a hit into the boards by Washington’s Alex Ovechkin early in the third period. The moment was scary. But the good news - or at least news that’s not bad - is Heward’s health is a lot better than it looked as there is no structural damage to either his neck or spine.

That’s the good news. The concussion he’s suffering from, however, is not mild by any stretch of the imagination.

“If today is any indication of how I’m going to feel for the next little while, it’s going to be a while,’’ Heward said. “Judging from my night in the hospital and the flight home, even the taxi ride, I didn’t feel good at all today. The more I’m trying to think about things, my head, it’s more confusing what’s happening and where to go from here. So I’m going to take some time, relax and try to get my feet under me. I mean, who knows, it could be two days, it could be 22 days, I’m not sure. I’ve had concussions before that have been quick and I’ve had some that have lasted a while, so we’ll have to see how this one plays out.’‘

Heward said he hasn’t looked at the hit yet, but eventually he wants to see it in the hopes it can help piece together some of the memories he has lost. He also didn’t find out until Friday who it was that hit him from behind, and once he did, he has no hard feelings toward Ovechkin, a former teammate of his in Washington.

“I didn’t really ask who hit me until [Friday] and once I found out it was Alex, and in my opinion he’s probably one of the cleanest players in the NHL as far as being honest,’’ Heward said. “He’ll play hard on you, but now that I know it was him, I know it wasn’t intentional. I played with him for two years and we were pretty tight when I played there, so I totally agree and think it was an accident.’‘

Here are the other comments from Heward when he met with the media today inside the Lightning locker room:

On how he is feeling: “As good as I can expect to right now. There wasn’t any damage to my neck, the X-rays and CAT Scan were all negative, so it’s just a matter of putting the pieces back together. It’s a little foggy right now. The more I talk to everybody and the more I talk to guys it’s starting to come back to me a little bit. But for the most part I can’t remember a lot of the game, can’t distinguish between what was happening or if it was something I was just thinking about. I haven’t seen the hit yet, I haven’t seen anything, I’m just trying to piece my day back together.’‘

On the physical pain he’s feeling: “I’ve got a pretty good headache, the doctors always want to know what it’s like on a scale of one to 10, and it’s an 8.5 to a nine. I’ve got some pain in the upper part of my neck, more of a whiplash pain than anything. Now that they’ve ruled out there’s no damage back there, it’s more or less I know it’s just pain from the hit.’‘

On whether he was able to get any sleep Thursday night: “Once they found out there was nothing wrong with my neck, they let me sleep a little bit, but the nurse kept coming in every hour to check my blood pressure. I was more worried about our assistant trainer [Mike Poirier] sleeping in the chair in the corner than I was about myself. But it was a pretty uneventful night and it’s all pretty confusing right now what actions took place. I can remember a few things, but an hour later I couldn’t remember the same things, and it’s tough to know that and hopefully it will come back soon.’‘

On what he does remember from Thursday night: “The first thing I remember is pretty much when I first got into the ambulance. I was pretty confused, wondering what was going on and what was happening. But now that I’ve talked to the trainers, they said on the ice that I knew it was the third period – I didn’t know the score or where I was – but I knew we were playing a game and then all of a sudden when I got into the ambulance, and whether it was the movement of the ambulance or what, but I started to forget a lot of stuff. The more I think about it now, the less I can remember of the day. And the doctor told me it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better, that I would forget a lot of things, but hopefully forgetting them makes me remember in a couple of days.’‘

On whether he had any long term concussions previously: “I had one in Toronto playing with their farm team that took me all summer to get back from. It was one of those things that I would go days without remembering what I had done for that week, telling my wife I had a good workout today when she told me that I actually played golf. So I’ve had a couple that have been long term. This one, I don’t know. The confusion in my head right now is a little worrisome, but it’s only been less than a day so far and we’ll see how it turns out in the next little while after some rest.’‘

On wanting to see the hit on tape: “I want to see it so that maybe, I might not remember it at the time, but in a couple of days it might come back to me what was happening. I know in previous concussions that I how I kind of rebuilt my memory, talking to people about what had happened prior and after, phone calls and things. I know I had a lot of messages last night and I can only remember talking to my wife and that’s it. So it’s going to continue for a couple of days, I hope it gets better but I need to try and rest because there’s really not much you can do for it besides rest and get as much accomplished by talking to people and remembering as much as you can.’‘

On whether Ovechkin has attemtped to contact him: “He hasn’t, but he doesn’t have to. If he does, great, if not, I’m not too concerned about it. I know how he feels, he said it in the paper and said it to some of the guys after he talked to Artyukhin and told them that he’s really sorry. Some of the other guys on the Capitals left messages and they said the same thing. As a hockey player, if he doesn’t contact me it could be a superstitious thing and I totally understand. We’ll talk someday, maybe have a beer over the summer or something like that and rehash it.’’