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Nights like Monday should serve as a reminder that the Tampa Bay Lightning would be lost without goaltender Ben Bishop. And while you can say that almost any elite team’s starting netminder, and while you shouldn’t have to say that about a goalie when said elite team is going up against an AHL-loaded Toronto Maple Leafs squad, it was the play of the 6-foot-7 Bishop that stood tall above everything else in the Lightning’s 3-0 victory over the Leafs at Amalie Arena.
It truly was the Ben Bishop Show.
Bishop kept the Bolts on even ground in spite of a 7-0 shot advantage that favored the Maple Leafs to begin the night, and it was Mike Blunden that broke through with the game’s first goal, scored at 7:34 of the first period, with the assists to Erik Condra and d-man Victor Hedman.
The goal, Blunden’s third of the year and first since Dec. 26, came on a great read by Hedman that pushed the puck up from his own end knowing that a streaking Condra was going to beat an icing.
Tampa Bay came through with their second goal of the period with a line drive shot out of midair courtesy of Ondrej Palat, who turned 25 years old on Monday, for his 15th of the year.
But even with the goals, the story of the first remained Bishop, and namely his net-front stop on Brad Boyes five minutes plus into the first period that at the time kept the game scoreless.
Hedman extended the Lightning lead to three with his eighth goal of the season, scored at 6:38 of the first period, and assisted by Condra (his second of the night) and captain Steven Stamkos.
The three goals would be plenty, too, as the Bishop led the Bolts to yet another victory behind a 34-save shutout, his sixth shutout of the year, with help of a Tampa Bay penalty kill that went 7-for-7.
Random thoughts and notes
- With Anton Stralman (non-displaced fracture in his left fibula) out of action, the Bolts will need to lean on his pairing partner, Victor Hedman, in a major way. And on Monday, Hedman came through a game reminiscent of last year’s Hedman. To suggest that Hedman has been ‘bad’ this year would be an over-the-top, hyperbolic take, but suggesting that he hasn’t been the offensive dynamo or play-reader that he was a year ago, would be fair. But on Monday, Hedman saw the 200-foot sheet better than anybody else on the ice. The Bolts started the night with Andrej Sustr on a pairing with Hedman, too, which I think might actually be the Bolts’ best option while Stralman heals.
- Forward Valtteri Filppula made his return to the lineup after a six-game absence (upper-body injury), and centered the Tampa Bay top line, with Stamkos shifted to the right wing. In 17:27 of time on ice, No. 51 finished the night with one hit, a giveaway, and a tripping penalty to his name.
- Following the game, forward Joel Vermin, who was up with the club on an emergency recall, was returned to the Syracuse Crunch, which should mean the return of either Ryan Callahan or Nikita Kucherov for Tampa Bay’s next contest. A welcomed sight for either, to be honest.
Up next
The Lightning will continue their homestand with a Thursday (originally wrote Wednesday because I'm an idiot and cannot read) night visit from the Montreal Canadiens. It will be the fifth contest of this six-game homestand that’s come with three wins for Tampa Bay, and serve as the second-to-last head-to-head between the Bolts and Habs this season.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.