The suspicions many observers had about Ben Bishop''s ailing health in Game 3 turned out to be well-founded, as the Tampa Bay Lightning goalie will miss Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Lightning goalie Ben Bishop to miss Game 4 with lower-body injury
Tampa Bay turns to a rookie deep in the Stanley Cup Final.
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The Lightning announced Bishop's absence minutes before puck drop, citing a vague lower-body injury as the reason for the change in net. That means the team will start rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy in net on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks. It will be his first career playoff start.
Bishop put on a spectacular 37-save performance in Game 3 in Chicago, but not without enduring plenty of pain. He was slow to get up after shots on multiple occasions, trudged sluggishly through his own crease and even laid prone on the ice after getting sideswiped by Brandon Saad. But he stuck in the game and gutted out a win nonetheless.
He won’t get a chance for a repeat performance. Vasilevskiy went 7-5-1 in the regular season with a .918 save percentage and a 2.36 goals against average.
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