June 05--TAMPA, Fla. -- The talk was all bite. Victor Hedman was no bark.
The Lightning defenseman called Andrew Shaw "a great player" Friday, two days after Shaw apparently bit Hedman's arm while Hedman had him in a headlock during a scrum in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
"I'm not going to comment on that anymore," Hedman said. "Things happen during games. I'll leave it at that."
Not long after the scrum, videos surfaced on the Internet with Hedman mouthing the words, "He bit me."
Hedman preferred to let his previous talking do the talking.
"Everyone who watched that could see what I said," he said. "If you saw that, I don't have to say anymore."
Hedman said spent his day off Thursday not thinking about hockey, the bite or the absence of punishment to Shaw from the league.
Shaw would neither confirm nor deny that he bit Hedman and wouldn't say whether or not the league has contacted him about it.
"I'm not going to get into details," Shaw said. "We're here to focus on the next game and, you know, hockey."
Come here, kid: Lightning goalie Ben Bishop said he gave Blackhawks backup goalie Scott Darling the pitch, and Darling took a swing at the University of Maine while Darling stayed with Bishop during a visit to the school.
"I recruited him," Bishop said with a grin. "I guess I did a good job, right? Because he came to the school. I was 1-for-1."
Though Darling isn't expected to play in the Final, it marks the first time in NHL history that goalies from the same college played on teams squaring off for the Stanley Cup.
Bishop played for Maine from 2005-08, while Darling was there for two seasons, from 2008-10.
"He's a good kid ... good goalie," Bishop said.
Forget that: Lightning left winger Brenden Morrow channeled cereal and children Friday when asked about trying to forget his team's 2-1 loss in Game 1.
His take was fitting because at an average of 26.2 years old, the Lightning are the youngest team in the playoffs.
"I can give my kid Fruit Loops and an hour later he'll tell me he hasn't had any yet and he wants some Fruit Loops," said Morrow, 36 and the team's oldest player by nearly five years. "So yeah, that memory is a good thing when you can kinda let that thing roll off your back a little bit.
"We're hoping that's the case for us, and it has been in the past."
The Lightning have lost Game 1 in three of their four postseason series. They haven't lost a Game 2.
Pardon his French: Cedric Paquette helped hold Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews scoreless in Game 1, and he did some trash talking along the way.
Paquette didn't know then that Toews speaks French.
"Now I'm gonna talk to him in French," Paquette said.
He said it: "If you start puck-watching, you're going to be in the stands when (Patrick) Kane has the puck." -- Hedman on facing Toews and Kane, neither of whom registered a point during Game 1.
pskrbina@tribpub.com
