Bobby Taylor Q&A: Lightning's recent slump nothing to worry about
TAMPA, Fla. -- For the first time this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning have dealt with a slump.
It's to be expected, and good teams find ways to escape the mire. After beginning the current five-game road trip in a rough way with losses to the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Bay recovered to top the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. It remains to be seen if the Lightning can regain momentum soon.
Goaltender Ben Bishop's lower-body injury, sustained Monday in a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, represents the week's largest headline. Andrei Vasilevskiy, called up from the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch on Tuesday, fared well by making 23 saves in the victory over the Flyers. Bishop told reporters that he hopes to return this weekend.
Recently, Sun Sports analyst Bobby Taylor touched on these topics and more.
FOX SPORTS FLORIDA: The Lightning lost five of seven games before beating the Flyers. How important was it to earn that victory on the road?
TAYLOR: You're always going to go through these peaks and valleys in a season. And the problem was, with the Lightning, they were getting their chances. They were hitting goalposts, (goaltenders) were making saves. The bounces that they were getting when they were on that 11-2-something run after the loss to Minnesota (on Oct. 25), they weren't there. And they weren't coming here. And we weren't getting the key saves at the right time either. We'd go down, we'd hit a goalpost or the goalie would make a tremendous save, and the other team would go down, and they'd score. ... We're getting every team's best now, because the so-called experts are starting to figure out that this is a pretty good team.
FSF: Bishop missed the game Tuesday with a lower-body injury. What does his health mean to Tampa Bay's success?
TAYLOR: He's a huge part of our success. Boy, I tell you, we won't go anywhere if Bish is hurt at all. That's no slap against (Evgeni) Nabokov. (Bishop) gives us that 'wow' factor when he's in net. What happens, too, when you get a goalie like that, other teams have to formulate their game plan around him and about him. That really changes the way teams play and think about when they come to play you. So that's very important. It was good for us to see Vasilevskiy. He played pretty well. He made the right save at the right time. He didn't have a lot of work. But he had a couple of big saves. ... It will be interesting to see if he will play one of the two games this weekend, because we're not sure Bish is going to be back. But he might be.
FSF: Bishop ranks tied for third in the NHL with 26 appearances. There are some rumblings that he's being used too often. What's your opinion on how often Bishop has appeared?
TAYLOR: For me, you don't have to practice. That's the one thing I think is really different. You can play all the games, but the practices were tough, because you're getting 600 shots in a practice. I think if you're going to play a lot, just give him a day off in practice here and there. I think that's where coaches mess up a bit -- they have them play the games and then they have them in practices all the time too. You know how they give a lot of the forwards maintenance days? Give the goalie one. ... Think about it. You've got 23 guys (in practice). They're each getting 20, 30 shots a practice at you.
FSF: On the most recent homestand, slow starts were common as the Lightning went 2-2 in the stretch. What's to blame for the slow starts, and how can they be prevented?
TAYLOR: They're starting to realize now that everybody brings their 'A' game against them now. Everybody, even Carolina. ... They're coming. Because we're not a real physical team, that gives them a little more confidence. But they have to play a really hard game and a really fast game, because everybody knows how fast we are. In their minds, we have to play fast, so they come out really fired out. So if we're not at 100-percent fired up, then we get caught on our heels a little bit. I think we've started to realize that now, in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and we came out really quickly. I think that's one of the reasons for the slow starts -- the other team, they know they have to play fast and play hard, or else we will embarrass them because we're scoring goals. ... Everybody has had it in their head, 'If you don't play fast, if you don't get going right away, you will get beat by five goals,' I think a lot of our slow starts were because of that fact. Now that we understand it, we have to be ready for it. And we were the last two games.
You can follow Andrew Astleford on Twitter @aastleford or email him at aastleford@gmail.com.
