Diagnosis: fractured fibula. Timeline: indefinite. His right arm was heavy and swollen after a postgame workout, so he went to see the medical staff. He had surgery on April 4. Diagnosis: a blood clot. He scored on a breakaway in game five and, along with Hedman, helped the Bolts to a second straight Eastern conference final appearance. You want to be at your best in the playoffs. “That put us behind the 8-ball for (Sunday)”, Tavares said. “Those are some blows”.
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The Tampa Bay Lightning led for less than seven minutes combined in Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Islanders.
The Lightning set out to stay alive long enough for Stralman and Stamkos to return, and now they could have at least Stralman back for the conference final, making them even more formidable contenders. He wasn’t but Cooper said there had been no setback. Stamkos is harder to gauge because of the nature of his injury but he’s within the window.
“Everything was, ‘OK, this is devastating to deal with this, but it’s not over, ‘” Cooper said. “Because those guys are such important parts to our team, it just kind of became our mantra”. “Guess the guys have really bought into that”.
It’s a great story and it starts at the beginning.
The Lightning beat the New York Rangers in the National Hockey League semi-finals past year before losing in six games in the Stanley Cup finals to the Chicago Blackhawks. They were 19-17-4 on January 5.
“We talked about that in between the second and the third (periods)”, Bishop said.
Spoken like a true hockey player. “I don’t think a lot of people going into the playoffs would have checked our box to move on”.
The Lightning didn’t finish the regular season strong.
And then in Game 4 of the series on Friday night, they did it again. “You don’t know whether it’s the first period or the third period on our bench”. They continued to push the play.
Ben Bishop – The Lightning netminder shut down the Islanders, stopping all 28 shots that he faced, raising his save percentage to. All this to say his goal song “Takin’ Care Of Business” is pretty apt as that is what he did. 938 in 10 postseason games. Two huge saves for Bish in the first.
Defenseman Victor Hedman led the offense for Tampa.
From the minute the puck dropped, the Lightning displayed total domination. Garrison scored an overtime goal in Game 4 of this series.
Scoring goals this time of year just isn’t easy to do, but the Lightning have players scoring nearly at will right now. There are gritty veterans: Boyle, Ryan Callahan. He seems to take the brunt of the criticism, but after leading the team to its first postseason series win in 23 years, has he bought himself some time? Their coach, Jack Capuano, talked in the postgame about how well his team played, yet it is one loss from elimination.
However, Nikita Kucherov scored in the third to send the game into overtime, before Jason Garrison netted the victor one minute, 34 seconds into OT as the Lighting took a 3-1 series lead.
In just 10 games, Tampa has advanced to the Eastern Conference finals.
The Lightning have had to overcome more than their fair share of obstacles this season, but the most important thing is they have continued to come back time and time again.
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When asked what is the most impressive quality about Hedman, Bishop quickly joked, “His looks”. “We just got to come out and play the way we did (Tuesday) and give ourselves a chance to win”.
