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Tampa Bay Lightning Goaltending Situation Still In Flux

By Tasha St. Pierre

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The Tampa Bay Lightning’s goaltending situation is still in quite a state of flux with the start of the regular season just six days away.

The Tampa Bay Lightning finds themselves in a very precarious situation at the moment. The start of the regular season is a mere six days away and the team still finds itself missing one very important piece of the puzzle; a solid goaltender to back up Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop.

Ok…yes, there are plenty of options still available to take the coveted position until Andrei Vasilevskiy is cleared to play once again, but which one of them are truly ready to serve as backup to someone like “Big” Ben Bishop? We mean…he is a brick wall, after all.

The first option that comes to mind is current Syracuse Crunch goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis. We will give it to you, Gudlevskis had an amazing run in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia where the twenty three year old netminder stopped an amazing 55 of 57 shots from the Gold Medal winning Team Canada.

While in large part Gudlevskis is still adapting to the North American style of play, he did have a fairly decent season with the Syracuse Crunch last year. In the 45 games he suited up for last season, Gudlevskis maintained a record of 25-14-4 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.81 and a Save Percentage of .900.

Gudlevskis is still a viable solution to the Lightning’s goaltending issue, but there is still another player in the mix that could shake things up a little bit between the pipes.

This brings us to one of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s newest acquisitions, goaltender Kevin Poulin. As most of you know by now, the Tampa Bay Lightning claimed Poulin off waivers from the New York Islanders on September 27th. Poulin made his debut as the Tampa Bay Lightning took on the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of the Kraft Hockeyville USA event in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, it was to less-than-stellar results.

Don’t get us wrong, we do not blame Kevin Poulin, or Kristers Gudlevskis for that matter, for the loss in Johnstown. There were mistakes made at all levels that contributed to the loss at Hockeyville USA, but at the same time it was not exactly the kind of performance one would hope for in their debut with a new team.

This is not to say that Poulin doesn’t have potential. Let’s be real here for a moment…if Yzerman didn’t see some form of potential in Kevin Poulin, do you really think he would have gone through the motions to acquire him in the first place? There is definitely something there, though it may take a little more time on the ice until things get sorted properly.

Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper and Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman don’t have very much time left before a decision will have to be made so the Lightning can finally start planning their journey into the new season.

Well…at least that’s what we originally thought. It turns out that Cooper has been making plans for the new season all along; however, those plans do not necessarily include the selection of a backup goaltender before the start of the regular season.

Tampa Bay Times Staff Writer Joe Smith had an opportunity to speak with Coach Cooper about the current goaltending situation and he did not seem too entirely concerned with the inherent pressure to make a decision before the start of the season.

"“I don’t think you have to make that decision at this point,” Cooper told Smith. “There’s so many different scenarios. I don’t think we can sit here and say just because the goalie we keep as the guy that’s going to back up (Bishop) is going to be the guy that’s going to play games. Someone may go to the American league, play some games and come up.”"

Coach Cooper went on to not only dismiss the urgency for a decision, but to say that it could possibly be weeks before we know for sure who will be backing up Ben Bishop during the regular season.

"“I guess we’re not really worried about that,” Cooper told Smith. “One guy is going to get it over the other eventually. Who that is going to be, we’ll have to see in a few weeks.”"

Cooper’s statements are something that sound a little too familiar. These are some of the same statements that Cooper made last season when it came to selecting the alternate captains for the season, and we all know how that situation worked out.

This is purely speculation here, but it almost seems as if Coach Cooper is eluding to a mysterious third option that has not been thrown into the mix quite yet. There is always the possibility that Cooper may not choose a definitive backup for Bishop in the absence of Vasilevskiy.

As Cooper said, just because a player is suited up to serve as Bishop’s backup does not necessarily mean that the player, whoever it may be, will wind up taking the ice. There is always the possibility that Cooper could choose to alternate between the two viable candidates much like he did with the alternate captains last season.

There are so many questions left unanswered as we head into the new season. As you can imagine, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be looking to make another run at the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the 2015-16 season, but if they want to accomplish this long-term goal they are going to have to find some sort of consistency, and fast.

The Lightning’s last preseason game is scheduled for tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. in Sunrise, Florida as the Tampa Bay Lightning take on their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers.

It will certainly be interesting to see which players get the start behind the net in Sunrise and ultimately, who will serve as backup goaltender until Andrei Vasilevskiy is completed healed from the successful vascular surgery he underwent to remove a blood clot found near his collar bone.

On the bright side, Steve Yzerman has not exactly failed us here in the Bolts Nation, and we’ve got a good feeling he isn’t going to start now.

Next: Steven Stamkos Concerned About the Lightning’s Sloppy Play

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