Lightning's Braydon Coburn gets 'sick' on bench during Game 5

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As if Ben Bishop's pre-Game 5 mishap weren't enough, the Lightning's 2-0 shutout of the Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday featured another oddity sure to churn stomachs.

Defenseman Braydon Coburn has been an important piece to Tampa's blueline, averaging 17:14 so far in the playoffs. So when he sat out the rest of the game having played only 5:43 in the first period, something was fishy.

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Coach Jon Cooper was cryptic joking with reporters afterward when asked about Coburn's limited minutes. Was it discipline? Injury?

"Don't walk on our bench, OK?" he quipped, without getting into the messy details, during his postgame press conference. "That's what I'm going to say. I don't know what TV cameras picked stuff up. We had issues on the bench, so I've got to find out more of what's going on."

With the series tied 2-2, though, it would have been hard for the Lightning to to stomach a loss.

No matter. They came prepared for such a situation and dressed seven defensemen in the event Coburn couldn't go the distance. And they played perhaps their best game defensively in these playoffs, stifling the Rangers at their own game to take the series leading heading into Game 6 in Tampa.

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Brandon Schlager is an assistant managing editor at The Sporting News.