The Tampa Bay Lightning have yet to start one goaltender for three-consecutive games this season, but Ben Bishop will be the first as he gets the call again tonight when the Bolts host the Vancouver Canucks at AMALIE Arena (7:30 p.m. puck drop).
Bishop came on in relief of Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa Bay's 5-4 loss at St. Louis on December 1, making 9-of-10 stops and giving the Bolts a chance to win in a comeback bid that fell just short. Bishop followed up with starts in a home and away back-to-back set over the weekend, giving up one goal each in a 2-1 shootout win over the Washington Capitals (Dec. 3) and a 1-0 overtime loss at Carolina (Dec. 4).
Bishop will appear in his 250th career NHL game tonight.
Ben Bishop to start third straight game Thursday
Lightning goalie will appear in his 250th NHL game
"I felt good," Bishop said about his play over the weekend. "I felt good all season, just really wasn't getting the bounces and results. But the last couple games, guys played well in front of me and there weren't any crazy bounces or anything like that so it was nice. Hopefully, we'll just keep building here and take a step forward."
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said giving the starting nod again to Bishop isn't a knock on the recent play of Vasilevskiy but rather a nod to how well Bishop has performed in recent appearances. Throughout the first couple months of the season, Cooper indicated he had a plan for when and where he would split up the goaltending duties between the two but on-the-fly adjustments are necessary too.
"I guess you can lay out a plan at the beginning of the year and you try best-case scenario to follow it, but you know how things go, the ups and downs of the season," he said. "Some guys are hot, some not. Does this mean we're just going to keep going with Bish? No it doesn't. This could have easily been Vasilevskiy, but both these guys are in our plans. It's been weird because we've played all these games right in a row and now we have a couple days off. Somebody's got to play, but both of these guys are going to play now in the next little while here, so don't read into anything because Bish is getting three in a row."
Bishop is 1-1-1 so far in December with a 1.11 goals-against average and .960 save percentage during the month.
INJURY UPDATES: Ryan Callahan skated with the Lightning during Wednesday's practice session, and Cooper indicated he was probable to play following that skate.
But, Callahan didn't suit up for the Bolts' morning skate on Thursday and will miss his fifth-consecutive games as he continues to recover from a lower-body injury.
"We need him in our lineup, I just feel for him because I know how much he wants to play," Cooper said. "It's killing him. He's a big part of our locker room. We know what he brings to us on the ice, but just having guys like him out and (Steven Stamkos) out and (Anton Stralman) out, that's a lot of big voices out of our room.
"Hopefully, he's back here soon."
While the news concerning Callahan is negative, the Lightning did get a bit of good news during today's skate. Jonathan Drouin took part in the session and will be back in the lineup according to Cooper after missing the Carolina game with an undisclosed injury.
Also, Jason Garrison, who has missed two games with a lower-body injury, is expected to return to the lineup tonight against his former team. Garrison participated in morning skate, pairing with Andrej Sustr, his typical defensive partner. Luke Witkowski, who was reassigned to AHL Syracuse on Tuesday but brought back to the Lightning this morning, was on hand for morning skate and appears to be in the lineup tonight as he partnered with Braydon Coburn.
Slater Koekkoek and Nikita Nesterov are likely scratches tonight as both stayed longer on the ice for morning skate after the rest of the team had returned to the locker room.
SCORING SLUMP: The Lightning, one of the top offensive teams in the league over the last couple seasons, have scored just one goal over the last two games.
They've also collected three of four possible points from those two games, largely a result of the extra emphasis the team has put on defending its own net. The Bolts have given up only two goals combined in the shootout victory over the Caps and the overtime loss in Carolina.
"It's something that we like to see because we know we're playing good defense, and we feel like once you get into the playoffs, get into that grind, that's what wins hockey games, that's what wins championships," Johnson said of the Bolts' refocus on the defensive zone. "But at the same time, we'd like to see a little more offense from ourselves. We had some opportunities to score. We just didn't, but we think we can go a little further."
Asked whether he'd prefer to win a game 1-0 or 5-4, Johnson sided with the former.
"It's way more satisfying, then Bishop and Vasy's not yelling at us. That's always nice," Johnson joked. "You don't win 5-4 hockey games in the playoffs. They're not the teams that win when you have those big scores, so it's really important for us to try to win those 1-0, 2-1 games. That's just really preparing you for everything."
ODDS AND ENDS: The Lightning are looking for their first victory against a Western Conference team this season. The Bolts are 0-4-0 versus the West with losses to Colorado (4-0), San Jose (3-1), at Nashville (3-1) and at St. Louis (5-4)…The Lightning are 0-1-0 against Pacific Division teams so far, but last season, they owned a 10-4-0 record versus the Pacific, their best points percentage (.833) against any division…Alex Killorn will skate in his 300th career NHL game provided he's in the lineup tonight as expected…Tampa Bay split a pair of games with Vancouver last season but has won five of its last six against the Canucks and is 7-1-1 versus Vancouver since the start of the 2009-10 season…The Bolts' power play (22.9 percent) dropped from the top spot to fourth in the league following an 0-for-5 performance in Carolina.
