Lightning's Bishop hoping wrist is close to 100 percent before season starts

Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop recently offered insight into the wrist injury that hindered him for much of last season.  

The Vezina Trophy finalist told Dan Rosen of NHL.com he suffered the injury in January, and dealt with lingering effects throughout the remainder of the season.

It happened in warmups in Edmonton in January. I just took a shot on it. It was one of those things that over time was getting worse and worse, and the one shot in warmups made it flare up. We tried to tape it for the game and the first period someone hit my blocker and I just kind of lost all strength in it. It took about a week and a half to calm down and I came back and was able to play. We tried taping it with a little cast and that worked for a couple of weeks, but then I took another shot and it was the same thing as the first time. It was the game before the Olympic break. I played the game before the break against Detroit almost in a cast. Then over the break we were able to build something and I played with a hard cast on top that was kind of sawed in half and a full splint that went under my palm. I couldn't bend my wrist. There are some saves in tight when you like to cut the angle off and put your wrist right over the puck, and I wasn't able to do that. It was an adjustment period learning how to play with my hand in a cast. There were probably three or four goals that I would have had if I didn't have a cast on, maybe a little more, but I learned to play with that.

Bishop added he has been skating for a couple weeks, placing a pad under his blocker in order to brace the impact of the puck on his wrist. 

"It's not 100 percent yet," Bishop said, "but hopefully before the start of the season it'll be close."

Based on how things went for Tampa in the postseason with Bishop out of the lineup, the Lightning are surely hoping to have their starting goalie back at full strength in time for an opening night tilt with the Florida Panthers on Oct. 9.

The full interview can be read here.