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Lightning well represented at World Cup of Hockey 2016
- Updated: September 7, 2016
The last time Tampa Bay Lightning fans saw goaltender Ben Bishop in a game, he was being stretchered off the ice during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Pittsburgh.
The end of Bishop’s season was as abrupt as it was untimely. The 29-year-old was coming off arguably his finest season in the NHL. Bishop led all league netminders and tied a Lightning all-time record in 2015-16 with a 2.06 goals-against average. His .926 save percentage and six shutouts both ranked second in the league, and he finished as the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy given to the league’s best goalie behind Washington’s Braden Holtby.
The Lightning were forced to play the rest of the ECF with backup Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, and although the second-year-pro acquitted himself well during the following six-and-a-half games and nearly backstopped the Bolts to their second-straight Stanley Cup Final, Tampa Bay fell to the eventual Cup champion Penguins, losing 2-1 in Game 7 in Pittsburgh.
Bishop was forced to spend the offseason rehabbing the ankle injury that robbed him of completing the brilliant year he put together in his third full season with the Bolts.
Now, Bishop is eager to show he’s back to 100 percent health and ready to pick up in 2016-17 where he left off last season.
He’ll get an earlier-than-usual chance to test his mended appendage ahead of the upcoming NHL season at the World Cup of Hockey 2016, where Bishop is one of three goaltenders selected to play for Team USA. The Americans opened training camp in Columbus, Ohio on Monday.
“I feel good,” Bishop said. “I’ve been doing rehab most of the summer, still doing it right now, getting everything stronger. Everything feels good.”
Bishop will be thrown into the fire almost immediately as Team USA begins its pretournament exhibition schedule in Columbus on Friday, September 9, against Team Canada, the odds-on favorite to win the two-week, eight-team international tournament. The two teams will play again a day later in Ottawa. Barring any unforeseen setbacks, Bishop will see action in one or both of those contests.
In a typical preseason, Bishop would be able to ease into the exhibition schedule.
But there are bragging rights at stake whenever USA and Canada face one another, even in a “friendly” competition.
“It definitely gets you amped right away, going up against someone like Team Canada,” Bishop said. “You’re going from zero to …
