BRANDON, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning conducted practice as usual on Friday but without their starting goalie, Ben Bishop. Their highly skilled forwards shared and carried the puck with ease, knifed past defenders and launched shot after shot.
Now and then one sneaked past Andrei Vasilevskiy, Bishop’s backup, and, per tradition, the forwards raised their arms, howled and celebrated in raucous fashion. As practice wore on, though, and the shots kept going in, the celebrations seemed to become more subdued. The Lightning did not seem to want to shake his confidence.
With Bishop dealing with an undisclosed injury, Vasilevskiy started and lost Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Chicago Blackhawks, who tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2.