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Can Lightning overcome Ben Bishop's injury vs. Penguins?
Ben Bishop skated Wednesday in advance of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Eastern Conference Final Game 3 matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Bishop worked on movements and faced shots from goaltending coach Frantz Jean.
This gave some glimmer of hope that Bishop, who was carried off on a stretcher in the first period of Game 1 with a lower leg injury, could return to the series. Still he's out for Game 3 and the actual timing of his return is unknown.
Tampa coach Jon Cooper was cryptic on when Bishop will replace backup Andrei Vasilevskiy in net to try to help his team make it to a second straight Stanley Cup Final. The series is currently tied 1-1.
“I think after -- after today's game, I think now we're teetering on whether he can be back or not, but there's obviously no guarantees in that,” Cooper said. “But he's been making gradual steps every day, and he was going up and down today on his pads. So hopefully, it's soon.”
Raw Charge pointed out that Bishop suffering an injury this time of year is common. And currently the Lightning are 0-2 in series when either Bishop doesn’t play, or suffers an issue mid-series.
Bishop was injured a week before the playoffs in 2014 and Tampa was swept out of the first-round by the Montreal Canadiens.
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Last season, Bishop suffered a groin injury in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and played Game 3, making 36 saves to give Tampa a 2-1 series lead over the Chicago Blackhawks. Bishop sat Game 4 and Tampa lost three straight games to lose the Stanley Cup in six games.
Said Raw Charge:
It was the Lightning's last win of the series but all failings of the series did not result from Bishop's injury alone; Tyler Johnson and other players on the Bolts roster were banged up and the team suffered due to it. He was making 26.6 saves on-average a night during his five starts in the finals, and the most goals he gave up during the series was 3 during the Lightning win in game 2.
So far this postseason, Bishop has been Tampa’s most important player as the team has dealt with injuries to captain Steven Stamkos and No. 2 defenseman Anton Stralman – who just returned for Game 2.
In 11 games played, he’s carried an 8-2 record with a 1.86 goal-against average and .939 save percentage.
This past season, Bishop ranked 10th in the NHL in 5-on-5 save percentage amongst goaltenders who had played at least 2,000 minutes according to Puckalytics. Amongst goaltenders who had played at least 150 shorthanded minutes, Bishop ranked second to Anaheim’s John Gibson in save percentage at .9125.
The league’s general managers voted him a finalist for the Vezina Trophy for his work in the regular season this past year when Bishop had a 2.09 goal-against average and .927 save percentage.
The 21-year-old Vasilevskiy has high-end athletic talent and was a first-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. In seven career playoff games he has a 2.40 goal-against average and .924 save percentage.
Said Hockey’s Future in their scouting report:
Vasilevskiy is a large and agile goaltender capable of making dramatic saves with his quickness and athleticism. Still developing in terms of the technical and tactical aspects of the position he appears to have relatively unlimited potential at this point.
But can he carry this team, or at least hold it afloat, until Bishop comes back?
“I think we've been confident in him forever really,” forward Tyler Johnson said. “We can see what he does in practice. We see what he does in games. He's an unbelievable goalie. He competes. He's always going to give you your ‘A’ game. You need that. It's tough when you lose a guy like Bishop, but Vasi is a guy that can come in and win games for us as well. He's done a tremendous job when he comes in. We've just got to do better in front of him.”
In some respects, the Penguins were in a similar situation earlier in the playoffs with Marc-Andre Fleury out with a concussion. Rookie Matt Murray beat the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals – and has played well enough to keep Fleury on the bench.
According to InGoal Magazine the 21-year-old Murray came into the season as the league’s fifth-best goaltending prospect.
Murray has jumped into the Conn Smythe Trophy conversation with a 2.00 goal-against average and .930 save percentage this postseason.
The Lightning believed Vasilevksiy played well in their Game 2 overtime loss to Pittsburgh, but the team didn’t. In that game, the Penguins attempted 69 shots to Tampa’s 44. If they can shut down Pittsburgh, then their goaltender may not matter as much.
“That kid just plays lights out for us every time, and we just haven't played very well in front of him,” Cooper said. “We seem to hang him out to dry at times during games. Like we played okay. We limited a lot of chances in the second period, but the first and the third were just way too many chances against. Clearly, he was the reason the game was so close”
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
