NEW YORK
Not good. Doesn't matter how you spin it. When Lightning goalie Ben Bishop was yanked out of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final Tuesday night, it was an alarming sight.
You really couldn't pin the blame for the Lightning's 7-3 loss to the Rangers on Bishop. Abandoned by teammates, hung out to dry by his defense, he couldn't be faulted for most of the five goals that got past him.
But when the Lightning goes into New York for a pressure-packed, winner-take-all Game 7 Friday night, there will be no more important player for the Lightning than its goalie. And this is a fact: The last time we saw the Lightning's goalie, his night ended about as badly as one can end for a goalie.
Goalies' nights are supposed to end with teammates mobbing them, tousling their hair and giving them gentle head butts, all in appreciation of a good game's work. Goalies are not supposed to end up on the bench wearing a ball cap while the backup is left to mop up the mess.
Here we go again. The biggest game of the Lightning season — the biggest game of the past several seasons — and there are major questions and serious concerns about the player most responsible for getting this team this far in the first place.
What will the Lightning get out of Bishop in Game 7?
"I think he'll be fine," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said.
Bishop has been the team's MVP the past two seasons. He set a franchise record for regular-season victories last season, then broke that record this season. As good as players such as Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Tyler Johnson have been, Bishop is the biggest reason the Lightning has been a postseason team the past two springs.
He has Tampa Bay one win from playing for the Stanley Cup. He pitched a shutout in Game 7 of the first-round series against the Red Wings (after winning a critical Game 6 on the road). He outdueled likely league MVP Carey Price of the Canadiens in the second round. And he has stood toe-save-to-toe-save with the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist in this conference final.
Yet there are nonbelievers. So many are unconvinced that Bishop will come through with the season on the line, that he can outplay Lundqvist in a Game 7 in Lundqvist's house.
Why is that? Why are we still not sure Bishop can be counted on in a game that counts the most? Why don't we trust him?
Maybe part of it is that Bishop never has been on this stage before. This postseason is his first in the NHL. Remember, he was hurt and missed last season's playoffs. Every game he plays, he walks deeper into the unknown. That's part of it.
The other part is a very recent history that is a tad shaky. Three times in the past four games Bishop has allowed five goals. Big-time goalies — those whose names end up engraved on trophies — don't do that, and they especially don't do that in the playoffs. He has started 23 consecutive games, and it's fair to wonder if he is simply running out of gas.
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Explore all your options"I think he seemed to have passed that test," coach Jon Cooper said, "because in every series we've gone, the kid seems to have upped his game."
Cooper said he has full confidence in Bishop but also allowed that having an extra day off between Games 6 and 7 will probably benefit his goalie, more mentally than physically.
"The one thing about him is he is a mentally tough kid," Cooper said. "When he's challenged, he has responded."
Give Bishop this: He's not one to ever sound rattled. Confidence is never an issue even when his game is. He is one of those goalies who refuses to ever believe he is bad even when he is bad. He is quick to blame bad luck or unlucky bounces or unusual circumstances. In a way, it's admirable for a goalie to never give in to the notion that he was lousy.
Bishop also isn't one to dwell on bad performances, whether they belong to him or his team.
"That's the goal," Bishop said. "You never want to string together multiple bad performances."
He also isn't one to get caught up in the enormity of the moment.
"It's just another game," Bishop said about Friday's Game 7. "It really is. Obviously there is a little more on the line, but it's just another game."
For the most part, Bishop has avoided back-to-back bad games. Even in the midst of this four-game span in which he has allowed five goals on three occasions, Bishop tossed in one of his best games of the season, a 26-save, 2-0 shutout in Game 5 at MSG. Earlier in these playoffs, he was pulled from a game against Montreal and came back to finish off the series in strong fashion.
"He's going to respond in Game 7," Killorn said. "He has done that all year."
He will have to one more time. In Game 7. At Madison Square Garden. Against "King" Lundqvist.
And unlike in chess, he has to hope that in hockey — and in this hockey game especially — a Bishop is more valuable than a King.