Lightning's Ben Bishop goes from rocky to rocking

Kevin Allen | USA TODAY Sports

TAMPA - Goalie Ben Bishop went into his first NHL playoff series as a hyped performer and he came out of it as a rock star.

That's the way Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper views Bishop's recent growth.

"There has never been a doubt in our locker room that he was ever going to falter," Cooper said. "(But) when the stage got bigger and brighter, so did Ben."

With 170 regular-season games on his résumé, Bishop had established himself as an upper-level starter. But he never played an NHL playoff game before Game 1 against the Detroit Red Wings.

When the Red Wings claimed a 3-2 series lead against favored Tampa Bay in the opening round, one of the story lines was rookie Petr Mrazek was out-performing Bishop.

"The guy at the other end of the ice was getting a lot of publicity for winning games, keeping his team in the series," Cooper said.

The read on Bishop: The Lightning needed more than he was providing.

"We never felt like that," Cooper said. "Ben has been a solid goalie for us for two years, actually much better than solid, he has been outstanding for us.

Cooper's view was that 6-7 Bishop had a "little bit of nerves," just like the Lightning experienced.

In the first five games of that series, Bishop stopped 100 or 111 shots for a .900 save percentage. In the final two games of that series, and the first two games of the second round against the Montreal Canadiens, Bishop has stopped 153 of 159 for a .962 save percentage.

"For Ben, that (first round) series needed to go seven games because he went through so many emotions," Cooper said.

Some athletes go through their whole careers without making the adjustment that Bishop made in five games. He just made himself comfortable as a playoff goalie. He makes it sound as if he is breaking in a new sofa or a new pair of walking shoes.

"There are some differences, but I try to treat playoff games like every other game," he said.

This season, Montreal's Carey Price was the NHL's best goalie and is up for both the Vezina Trophy and the Hart Trophy as league MVP. But in this series, Bishop is measuring up favorably. With the offense that Tampa Bay commands, the Lightning don't need Bishop to win them the series. But he has shown the past four games that he is capable of doing that.

"He's just one of those guys who gives you confidence when he's in the net," Lightning center Tyler Johnson said.

As much as Tampa Bay fans are probably loath to give the Red Wings credit for anything, they might owe them gratitude for expediting Bishop's growth as a goalie. He was always going to figure it out, but the Red Wings seemed to condense all of Bishop's learning needs into a single series.

"So many different challenges he had," Cooper said, "from us being behind, from us being shut out, from us not scoring, from us scoring a bunch of goals, from us dominating games and him not facing a lot of shots. You bottle that up by the time he got to Game 7, he was a rock star and he has kind of carried that on."

The new challenge will be facing back-to-back playoff games. After playing Game 3 Wednesday night, he'll start Game 4 tonight. Cooper points out that Bishop has played Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon in the American Hockey League.

Bishop didn't start back-to-back games this season, but Cooper doesn't view it as an issue.

"He's kind of riding a wave," Cooper said.

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