Tampa Bay Lightning: Ben Bishop Played With A Torn Groin Since Game 2

Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop revealed to fans that he has been playing with a torn groin since Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has seen their fair share of injuries throughout the season, but those same injuries that plague a team during the regular season can be so much more detrimental in the post season; especially when a team is faced with an elimination game like the Lightning were in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the now-Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.

If you have watched any of the games in this series; especially starting when Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Ben Bishop was forced to leave the ice in Game 2, you are well aware that something has been off about the way that Bishop covered the net and how he seemed slow to transition between positions or even get back to his feet from the ice.

This led fans to all manner of speculation that Ben Bishop had sustained some kind of injury during Game 2 that has been hindering him in the remainder of the series. Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper certainly didn’t help the situation much as he continually refused to speak about the condition of Bishop and whether or not he’d be ready to go on any particular night.

Well, now that all has been said and done and the series has come to an end, the time for speculation has ended and we now know for certain that Ben Bishop was in fact playing with an injury for the most part of the series against the Chicago Blackhawks and somehow managed to power through it.

According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop revealed that he suffered a torn groin in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals on a shot from Brad Richards in the second period.

Before anyone goes into a panic, much like we did when we first heard the news, Bishop continued on to say that the injury will not require surgery to repair and that with rest in the off-season he should be good to go when the team begins to prepare for next season.

We knew from the moment Ben Bishop stepped back out onto the ice for his brief return in Game 2 of the series that there was more than meets the eye to Bishop’s injury situation than the team was letting on. This would not be the first time that this has happened.

It wasn’t until after the Tampa Bay Lightning had been swept out of the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens last season that Bishop revealed he had torn a ligament right before the Olympic Break. Much like this post season, Bishop continued to play through the pain and finish out the regular season.

Thankfully, the major difference between these two scenarios is that Bishop’s injury will not require surgery this time around.

We have to give some serious credit to Ben Bishop. The 6 foot 7 inch tall netminder is a seriously tough dude to be able to play through that kind of pain and consistently carry the weight of your team on your shoulders and play some of the best hockey that we have seen in quite some time.

If there is anything else that we can say about this situation is that Bishop has more than earned some time off to rest, relax, and most importantly recover from his injuries and prepare himself both mentally and physically before he takes the ice once again to start the 2015-2016 season with his teammates.

What do you think about the news of Ben Bishop’s injury? Does it change the way you look at his performance in the Stanley Cup Finals? What do you think was Bishop’s best save of the post season? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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