Ben Bishop is down. Nobody has scored yet. You’ve just lost the best goaltender in the playoffs to this point, and the air is sucked out of your team. Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has played in the Stanley Cup Finals, is the most playoff ready backup in the league – except for maybe Matt Murray. The guy crouching across the ice from him.
That’s the image last night will be remembered most for. Ben Bishop is hurt, and the Lightning are looking at a series without him, Anton Stralman, and Steven Stamkos. A crucial piece from each aspect of the Lightning’s game. And yet they still eek out a victory against a battle-proven Pittsburgh Penguins.
How the Lightning will win this series was just proven. They will outscore a Pittsburgh team who didn’t manage to find a way around the defense from Tampa. Not that you can really blame the Penguins for this – look at that defense. Victor Hedman, Matt Carle, Jason Garrison and Andrej Sustr may be the best top 4 remaining in the playoffs. Anton Stralman is icing on the cake, and if successful – meaning they last more than five games – he will likely be back this series. That’s a major plus to a team desperately in need of one. So let’s see how the Lightning win at least one of the next four games.
They slow down not just Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but the line of Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel. That’s what the Capitals couldn’t do. But the Capitals don’t have the Lightning’s defense. The Lightning continue to outscore the Penguins, utilizing the suddenly capable Jonathon Drouin, the future face of the franchise Nikita Kucherov, and the smart and speedy Alex Killorn. The Lightning equal the Penguins’ depth, and they have played together longer. They have leadership in depth positions, and they are able to outclass the Penguins.
The Lightning also need to remain disciplined. Giving the Penguins an extra man at any time is a mistake, but especially down three of your best players. The only way the Penguins scored last night was with that extra man. Take that away – Vasilevskiy made some unreal saves, following up the unreal saves from Ben Bishop. Bishop will be day to day, so I think it’s safe to say if desperate need becomes apparent we may see the Vezina nominee back in.
I would not be surprised to see suspensions to both first line wings for the Penguins. Connor Sheary is somewhat to blame for Bishop’s injury – looking at the replays, you can see that his stick goes against Bishop’s leg right before he collapses. Chris Kunitz’s knee to knee injury took Tyler Johnson out for some time. Same thing could be said about Ryan Callahan’s hit on Kris Letang – the elbow to the head seems a tad deliberate. This is the Eastern Conference Final – any attempt to injure needs be realized and punished.