Finally, some good news in goal for Tampa Bay.
On Thursday, GM Steve Yzerman announced that No. 1 netminder Ben Bishop (torn groin) would be ready to go for the start of training camp, while potential backup Kristers Gudlevskis only suffered a minor arm injury last week, and should be available for preseason games.
Those were very welcome developments.
Tampa Bay’s had issues in the blue paint this offseason -- Bishop was dealing with the groin tear suffered during the Cup Final and his projected backup, Andrei Vasilevskiy, was lost for 2-3 months due to a blood clotting issue.
Not long after Vasilevskiy went down, Gudlevskis suffered an injury during the club’s preseason rookie tournament. It was cause for concern, especially since the Lightning’s other primary option in goal right now is veteran Ray Emery, who’s attending camp on a PTO.