Bolts keep the faith in Bishop
Tampa coach bristles at suggestion of goalie change for Game 5 in New York
TAMPA, FLA. — Jon Cooper was looking for a five-syllable word for dumb. And no, he was not stuck on a clue for a crossword puzzle.
The Tampa Bay Lightning head coach was just trying to come up with the perfect response after being asked whether he was contemplating a goalie change following Friday night’s 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers in Game 4.
“I understand your question, but for somebody to sit here and say, ‘Are you changing goalies?’ It’s asinine to me,” Cooper said at a private airport on Saturday, prior to flying to New York. “Well, OK, we’re not allowed to use that word in print?” What would be another word for that?
“Preposterous? That’s one more syllable than asinine. It’s more powerful. “Ludicrous? That’s only three. “Somebody come up with a five syllable (word).”
In other words, Ben Bishop will be starting Game 5 in New York. And to suggest otherwise would be, well, dumb. You might change goalies in the first or even the second round. But by now, you live and die by whoever got you here.
At the same time, after giving up 10 goals in two games, the Lightning are looking for a response from Bishop similar to what Henrik Lundqvist provided the Rangers after allowing 12 goals in Games 2 and 3.
“Yeah, he’s probably not happy about that and I don’t think any of his teammates are really,” Lightning defenceman Jason Garrison said of the amount of goals being score on Bishop. “So collectively, as a team, we’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen. You can’t win in the playoffs very much letting those kinds of goals up.”
Bishop was a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2013-14 and he was one of only four NHL goaltenders to reach 40 wins this season. But if there was a question mark surrounding the Lightning prior to these playoffs, it was how the 28-year-old goaltender would perform in his post-season debut. So far, the jury is still out. Bishop outplayed Detroit’s Petr Mrazek in the first round and Montreal’s Carey Price in the second round. But he still has the fifth-worst save percentage (. 918) among goalies who have played in at least six games.
Of course, on a team that has relied on a potent offence — the team has five players ranked in the top six in goals — and a strong and mobile defence led by Victor Hedman, the Lightning have not necessarily needed Bishop to be spectacular. They just needed him to be adequate.
It was like the old line about the Edmonton Oilers: you could allow five goals, as long as the sixth does not go in. But that could be changing if Lundqvist plays the way he did on Friday night.
“You can’t continue to sit here and say, well, we need to score six every night to win,” said Cooper. “We need to score three to win. And that’s what we have to get back to. So we have to look after our net a little better.”
While Lundqvist said he changed some parts to his game to counteract Tampa Bay’s shooters, New York might have also made some adjustments to getting pucks past the 6-foot-7 Bishop.
“All of a sudden Bishop’s allowed 10 goals in two games and you look at his game and go, ‘what’s missing?’” said TSN hockey analyst and former NHL goalie Jamie McLellan. “The one thing that Ben struggles with is lateral movement after the first shot. He allowed two rebound goals (Friday) night and I think both of them were through the body.”
The playoff rookie had a huge shutout against the Red Wings in Game 7 of the first round. And he allowed just one goal in a pivotal Game 6 series-clincher against the Montreal Canadiens in the second round.
Now, with the conference final boiled down to a best-of-three, he has to come back with a similar response.
In other words, he’s been clutch. Or whatever the five-syllable word is for that.