Ben Bishop's approach has helped him step up when needed

TAMPA — Ben Bishop became a goaltender by chance. Growing up, everyone on his team got an opportunity to tend net. Turned out he was pretty good at it and he liked the fact that goalies don’t come off the ice regularly during a game like skaters. He played other sports like baseball and football, but hockey was the one that led him to a professional career.

At 6-foot-7, Bishop is the tallest goaltender in the NHL and tied with three others, including Lightning teammates Brian Boyle and Andrej Sustr, for tallest player in the league. He covers a lot of net, not allowing opponents much room to shoot. And as a goalie, he has one reaction to those wanting to make NHL nets bigger to increase scoring.

“Let’s make them smaller,” he joked. “A couple games ago we won 6-5. What do you want the scores to be, 12-10?”

The game Bishop referenced was Game 2 against the New York Rangers in the conference final, one of three games in that series where he allowed five goals. (He’d allow another five in a 5-1 loss in Game 3 two days later.)

If someone told you before the Eastern Conference Final that Bishop would allow five goals three times with Henrik Lundqvist in the other net you’d probably think the Rangers won the series. They lost in seven, mostly because of Bishop’s ability to recover after bad games. Just look at Games 5 and 7, both at Madison Square Garden, where he posted 2-0 shutouts, both following games he allowed five goals.

A trio of bad games like that might have affected another goaltender, but Bishop’s mental prepartion has been a big part in his evolution.

“You really just got to approach it like any other game,” he said. “We’ve played 100 games so far this season and now we have the chance to play seven more. You really just don’t change anything, you kind of keep it the same way, whether it’s a preseason game, a regular season game or a Stanley Cup Final game. You don’t change a thing and it kind of makes it a little bit easier.

“You’re not going to win or lose the series in one game. Some games are going to be good. Some games are going to be bad. It’s all about the next one. You can’t really worry about the previous one. I don’t think many teams have gone out and won 16 straight. It’s just about realizing they’re not always going to be perfect.”

It’s taken some time for the 28-year old Bishop to arrive as a No. 1 goaltender in the NHL and the work of three different goaltending coaches in three different stops helped him get there.

While with the St. Louis Blues, Bishop worked with Rick Wamsley and Corey Hirsch. As a young netminder coming out of the University of Maine, there was learning to do, and not regarding just on-the-ice stuff.

Wamsley focued a lot of his work on teaching the then-22-year old Bishop how to be a professional and what goes into being successful at the NHL level. Leading the Black Bears to back-to-back Frozen Fours was one thing, being a winning goaltender in the best hockey league in the world was another.

After Wamsley left for the Ottawa Senators, Hirsch was hired and worked with Bishop on fine-tuning various aspects of his game and had him play deeper in net.

A February 2012 trade reunited Bishop with Wamsley in Ottawa. By then, Bishop was a bit more mature and Wamsley had more experience working with other goaltenders. “It wasn’t about becoming a pro, it was more fine-tuning [his game] even more,” he said.

Bishop saw increased playing time with the Senators, but his opportunity to become a regular starter finally came late in the 2013 season when the Lightning acquired him in exchange for Cory Conacher, who was second in the rookie scoring race at the time of the deal. The goaltending picture in Tampa at the time was ugly and starter Anders Lindback was out indefinitely with an ankle sprain.

The very next season Bishop started 63 games for the Lightning, leading them to the postseason and being named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. In Tampa, there wasn’t much changing of his game, Bishop says, just more video work with goaltending coach Frantz Jean, with pointers getting handed out here and there. So far, it’s worked out pretty, pretty well.

Last August, Bishop signed a two-year, $11.9 million extension with Tampa, a deal that ends after the 2016-17 season. It was a “prove it” deal handed to him by GM Steve Yzerman and so far he’s done just that, with this postseason turning into his coming out party. He and the Lighting now face their toughest challege yet.

“The one thing about him is,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, “he's a mentally tough kid. When he’s been challenged, he's responded.”

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

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