Goalie Ben Bishop will start for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bishop has won his past four starts (1.22 GAA, .953 save percentage), and coach Jon Cooper said the Lightning's efforts on defense have improved to complement his play. "As a team we're defending better," Cooper said. "We're not giving up the odd-man rushes and (we're) limiting the scoring chances, and right there that's helping the goaltending out. And Bishop is in command of his game. He's looks intimidating in there, he's making the big saves and not giving up rebounds." Despite Bishop's strong play, Cooper said he still plans on playing backup Andrei Vasilevskiy in a rotation. Bishop hasn't started three consecutive games since Dec. 3-8. "We've [got at least a point] in six straight games and both guys have played," Cooper said. "We have two guys that can play so it makes no sense to ride out on them. Is starting a guy two, three games in a row riding him? I would think starting a guy 10 games in a row is riding him." The Lightning are 4-0-2 in their past six games and six points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
