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Bishop didn’t practice today, but ‘don’t be alarmed,’ it was all part of the ‘plan’

2015 NHL Stanley Cup Final - Game Three

2015 NHL Stanley Cup Final - Game Three

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TAMPA -- Just because Ben Bishop didn’t practice today doesn’t mean he’s going to miss another game of the Stanley Cup Final.

“Don’t be alarmed that he’s not out there,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Friday. “I’m not going to sit here and commit as to whether he’s going to play [tomorrow in Game 5]. He’s feeling better with each day.

“When we made the decision not to play him the other night, the decision just wasn’t made, ‘Oh, we’re not going to play him.’ It was, ‘We’re not playing you and you’re taking the next three days off.’

“This was all in the plan.”

While Cooper added that tomorrow’s morning skate will provide a “better indication” of the situation, Game 4’s surprise starter, Andrei Vasilevskiy, expressed confidence that, if called upon, he’ll be even better than he was Wednesday in Chicago, where he stopped 17 of 19 Blackhawks shots in a 2-1 Tampa Bay defeat.

“I think I’ll have more confidence,” Vasilevskiy said. “I got some experience right now in Stanley Cup Final. That’s it. In my head right now, mentally, I got more power right now. When you play, you get good feeling, more fun. I think next game if I will play, I will feel much better.”