Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop saw his season flashing before his eyes after leaving Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Friday, but he avoided serious injury and could return later in the series with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lightning coach Jon Cooper said he had not ruled him out for Monday’s Game 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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“He’s getting better each day, and it’s really encouraging to see”, Cooper said.
“We’ve got to be better, now that we have a better understanding of what they do”, Crosby said.
Perhaps the biggest headline was the early exit of Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop, who was injured after 12:25 in the first period.
Cooper was optimistic that X-rays showed no structural damage in Bishop’s knee. Both are 21, but Murray is two months older than Vasilevskiy. Johnson remained in the training room when the Lightning came out for the second period. Now Tampa Bay faces the prospect of journeying forward without Bishop, its 6-foot-7 anchor at the back end who is enjoying the finest season of his career.
“I think Sidney’s “dry spell” is most player’s hot spell”. Unfortunately we fell two wins short previous year (losing the Cup final to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.) But I think those experiences have (made) our team closer.
The Penguins don’t expect to have their players pasted to the boards and risk injury as witnessed Friday night when Letang was clocked by Callahan.
The one thought that didn’t even occur to Bishop was whether backup Andrei Vasilevskiy could do the job. In his one playoff start, Vasilevskiy took on the Chicago Blackhawks in last year’s Stanley Cup Finals and only saved 17 of the 19 shots the Blackhawks put on goal in a losing effort. Once he did, Tampa Bay’s lead was never in danger.
“I think the one thing that they’ve all adopted, and I think this is from going through what we went through a year ago is what it takes to get here”, Cooper said. Lightning LW J.T. Brown, out since Game 2 of the first round against Detroit with an upper body injury, did return. You start thinking the worst thing. Then, given a late reprieve with a power-play opportunity with just under five minutes to go, the Penguins failed to score.
“I’m trying to pin him”, Callahan said. “Guys that are first to the rink and last to leave, and all those types of things, but that kid (Vasilevskiy) it’s actually true”.
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Only time will tell if the boycott over the Pittsburgh promotion is real or just a lot of thunder from fans caught up in the middle of a playoff rivalry. Stamkos skated Friday morning, too, and wore a regular jersey instead of a red “no contact” jersey but Cooper said there was no change in Stamkos’ status as he recovers from a blood clot.
