If you’re expecting a lot of details about Ben Bishop’s condition, you’re out of luck.
Tampa Bay Lightning assistant Rick Bowness spoke for head coach Jon Cooper on Thursday, and his update on Bishop maintains the stats quo: he’s day-to-day with an unspecified issue.
There are some interesting details regarding the 28-year-old’s thought process before and during Game 4 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, however.
For one thing, it sounds like Bishop decided not to play last night:
Bowness said Bishop realized he wasn't healthy enough to play last night and made "the right call."
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) June 11, 2015
That doesn’t mean that it was a comfortable experience for the towering netminder, however:
Lightning assistant Rick Bowness said he had never seen Ben Bishop as nervous as he was last night watching the game instead of playing.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) June 11, 2015
The Lightning have generally downplayed the differences between Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy, but Matt Carle pointed to two big considerations: puckhandling and communication.
Despite losing Game 4, the young goalie looked pretty sharp against the Chicago Blackhawks, and likely has a decent amount of confidence from his coaches and teammates. That could benefit him well in Game 5 ... assuming he’s playing.
Chances are, we won’t know until moments before the puck drops on Saturday, but perhaps the latest Cooper swerve will involve actual transparency?