The Miraculous Bishop.
I will be the first to admit that I didn't see any way possible that Ben Bishop could start yesterday, and after the first period I would've bet my house that he wasn't finishing the game. Ben Bishop gave the NHL a Kirk Gibson moment last night. As he stopped 38 of 39 shots against the mighty Blackhawks in Chicago to win game three of the Stanley Cup Final… on one leg.
Bishop played a "smart" game considering his physical limitations. He didn't move much, but he never moves much, and he overcompensated just enough to get the job done. It took the Blackhawks missing some golden opportunities of course...but at the end of the day the Lightning are miraculously leading this series, and writing a hell of a story in the process.
As a goalie myself, and as any goalie out there can tell you, playing hurt is way more difficult given the pressure and the physical nature of the position. Many athletes play hurt, but for a goalie in the NHL the play hurt, that's impressive.
My feelings towards Bishop and the Lightning changed as the game went on last night. It started with confusion and huge amounts of questioning as to why they would risk such a thing? This wasn't game seven of the series, and your backup goalie is more than capable, why not rest Bishop and not risk him doing permanent damage to himself and the series? It just didn't make any sense, and besides that, it was obvious the Lightning were backing in trying to protect him in the first period...a strategy which essentially rendered their offense useless...
It was obvious that between periods, John Cooper told his team that if they didn't start playing offense it didn't matter who was in goal. And as the second period began, it was as if Tampa's fear for Bishop had turned into a rallying cry... And suddenly I couldn't help but pull for Bishop and the Lightning.
It was a very dramatic game to say the least. It will be very interesting to see how Bishop feels come Wednesday. Whatever ails him you can be pretty sure the playing against Chicago in the Stanley Cup Final last night wouldn't be at the top of a doctors list of ways to recover.
On Mikko Koivu...
I have been hearing for a while now that Koivu could be on his way out of Minnesota. Mikko is a hell of a player and a great leader, but the Wild definitely want some room to do some other things. There will be a good market for Mikko despite his salary. One very interesting twist could be a return of a Koivu to Montreal. I have also heard Arizona and the NY Islanders with very strong interest.
We will discuss all this and more on today's special buzzcast from Chicago 4 PM Eastern time.