When Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop left Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Friday night in the first period with a left leg injury, the Lightning wished him well and went right back to work.
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“Everything has been really good so far on Ben”, Cooper said Saturday on a conference call with the media.
“You don’t want to see things like that, but he went in, and we got him checked out”.
Added Bishop, “It was just the feeling, and then there’s just pressure and pain right away, just kind of the way that it nearly felt like somebody had slashed me on my – slashed me”.
The Lightning have declined to reveal what Bishop’s injury is but did say that X-rays were negative and an MRI exam revealed no structural damage.
There were questionable hits in Tampa Bay’s 3-1 win, including a five-minute major penalty given to Lightning forward Ryan Callahan after he sent Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang headfirst into the boards.
Andrei Vasilevskiy came off his perch at the end of the bench, replacing Bishop, to stop 25 of the 26 shots he faced, the only goal he surrendered being on the powerplay, to Patric Hornqvist. “He’s not favoring anything, so it’s a really good sign”.
The real scare, however, was Ben Bishop’s injury in the middle of the first that had the netminder stretchered off. Bishop, who injured his groin in the Stanley Cup Final past year and played off and on for the Lightning in that series, clearly tweaked something in his knee falling over in the blue paint.
“Like I’ve said before, I’m just giving myself a chance to be ready if that time comes”.
This isn’t the first time the Lightning have dealt with injury questions about Bishop in a playoff run.
However, when your hometown team has overcome as much as the Tampa Bay Lightning have been forced to overcome this season and are doing everything they can to make a repeat performance in the Stanley Cup Finals, what kind of organization decides to do their marketing with the opponents?
BRIEFS: Tyler Seguin missed the last 11 games of the playoffs for the Dallas Stars with a strained left calf that was weakened by sitting out the final 10 games of the regular season because of a cut on his Achilles’ tendon.
Penguins team scope: Goalie Matt Murray will start Game 2 after allowing three goals on 20 shots Friday. “I’m committed, I think, when he turns his head, and his body is pretty low”, Callahan said. “Like I said earlier, can’t say enough about the way he played”.
“For somebody as young as he is, he’s already played in a Stanley Cup Final”, said Cooper. Johnson also needed assistance off of the ice after Kunitz collided knee to knee with him.
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“We know we have Vasy backing him up”, said Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. Steven Stamkos practiced without a non-contact jersey Sunday. Drouin finished off a 3-on-2 by burying a feed from Palat into the open net 18:25 into the second period to give the Lightning complete command.
