At about 12 minutes into the Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Bishop was in the midst of trying to make a save and ended the sequence by laying on the ice writhing in pain. A very quick turn of events resulted in a 5-minute major penalty against Ryan Callahan when he planted a quick check against the Penguins’ Kris Letang. Game Two against the Penguins is Monday night at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.
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The Lightning lost two more very key players, including mammoth goalie and Vezina Trophy – awarded to the National Hockey League goaltender who is “adjudged to be the best at this position” – candidate, Ben Bishop and productive (Lightning’s leading playoff point scorer) “Triplet”, Tyler Johnson.
Bishop was voted a Vezina Trophy finalist this year, and now has a 1.86 goal-against average and.939 save percentage through 11 games this postseason.
– There’s a chance Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop could be back in the net for Game 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“He was called on in the biggest moments past year”, Cooper said. First thing I thought, I thought I broke my leg.
“You have to get better as the series goes along, you have to adjust a little bit”, said Crosby, who assisted on Pittsburgh’s only goal in Game 1 but hasn’t put the puck in himself since the first round against the New York Rangers. I’m sure my family was scared.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Bishop, who had to be carted off on a stretcher after apparently injuring his left leg in the first period of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against the Penguins, did not have anything structurally wrong with his leg. You start thinking the worst thing, I’m thinking my leg is broken.
“That’s great news because he is an extremely important player on our team”, Cooper said. The Lightning controlled play long enough after Bishop went down for Vasilevskiy to get comfortable.
Despite the win, Tampa Bay fans were unhappy with the Bradenton CVB, and overnight #BoycottBradenton began to trend on Twitter in the Tampa Bay area. Late in the third period, Brian Dumoulin was boarded hard by Palat and dropped.
One both teams insist they’ll try to avoid, along with the temptation to retaliate.
“[I’ll] just take it day by day right now”, he said. It all depends on the goaltending of Andrei Vasilevskiy, the backup goaltender of the Lightning.
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Sullivan said Fleury is fit to return after recovering from a concussion but not necessarily in game shape. Letang left the game but later returned. Vasilevskiy has been called upon in big spots before, as he stepped in for Bishop in last year’s Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks when he got hurt in Game 2 and then starting Game 4.
