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Ben Bishop Leaves Game 2 Early (Twice) Amid Injury Speculation

By Tasha St. Pierre

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Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop left the ice not once, but twice, during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Tampa Bay Lightning held strong in the third period and powered back to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals and tying the series at 1. Unfortunately, there is another storyline that is weighing heavily on Lightning fans tonight involving goaltender Ben Bishop.

Allow us to set the scene for you. The Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 over the Chicago Blackhawks heading into the third period. The Lightning would come out of the tunnel with intensity, but unfortunately it would not be quite enough to hold back the Chicago Blackhawks offense.

Just 3:38 in the period, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook would fire a puck that would sail past Bishop and tie the game up for the Blackhawks. Under normal circumstances we would take something like this in stride and battle a little harder to get back on top. Unfortunately, these are not what we would consider normal circumstances.

As Seabrook’s puck is making its way to the net, the stick of Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa would make its way around Bishop’s left blocker and Hossa would proceed to pull Bishop’s leg out from under him. Despite Bishop’s angry outburst, the referees (and the people watching in Toronto) believed this was perfectly legal and the goal would stand. Take a look at the play for yourselves.

Unfortunately, this is not the point of contention that has Lightning fans all riled up tonight. Shortly after the play, Bishop would make his way to the Lightning bench and subsequently down the tunnel to the Lightning locker room. In his place would be Lightning backup goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

When the play would stop for the next television time out, Bishop would return to the bench and retake his position between the pipes. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be long before it looked as if Bishop was favoring the leg swept out from under him by Hossa. Eventually, he would make his way to the locker room once again; this time he would not return to the ice.

As you can imagine, this has led Tampa Bay Lightning fans to fear the worst. That fear was certainly not sated when Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper headed into his post-game press conference. Right out of the gate, he refused to speak on the matter of Ben Bishop.

If you are one of the people who are watching this saga unfold on Twitter you have probably heard all manner of reasons for Bishop leaving the net. There have been everything from a much needed bathroom break, which sparked the hashtag #DumpAndChase to start trending, to talks of a knee or groin injury. None of these are favorable situations for the Tampa Bay Lightning to find themselves in heading into Game 3 in Chicago.

Fortunately, there was one small glimmer of hope to come out of this potentially dark situation for the Lightning tonight. Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune would post a tweet stating that he has heard that Ben Bishop will be just fine.

We don’t know about you, but we are certainly hoping that Erlendsson’s sources are correct and that whatever it actually is that is actually ailing Ben Bishop tonight is nothing serious and that he will be able to make the trip to Chicago on Monday night with the team.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has been understandably secretive about player injuries and illnesses during the post season so there is a possibility that we may never know exactly what it is that is plaguing the Lightning netminder, but as we said before, hopefully it is nothing too serious.

Of course, if there are any changes to Ben Bishop’s status or any details of any potential injury become available, we will be sure to pass them on to you as soon as they become available.

Next: Tampa Bay Lightning Stay Strong And Take Game 2 From The Blackhawks

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