DALLAS – Because he’s been great all season, the Dallas Stars can win the Stanley Cup.
But because he wasn’t good enough Monday night, that ultimate ask became a little tougher to answer.
Despite the 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues at raucous American Airlines Center, goalie Ben Bishop has the Stars in this series and in this hunt for hockey’s championship. But if he’s to rise to the level of franchise stalwart netminders such as Ed Belfour and Marty Turco, he can’t allow four goals as he did in a crucial Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals.
And he can’t get beat on the doorstep by a shot that grazed his armpit.
“Bish was great,” said Tyler Seguin. “But we got outworked. They played tougher and won more battles and were the desperate team. We have to fix that.”
Before a sellout crowd that included Dirk Nowitzki, Ezekiel Elliott, Daryl Johnston and tennis star John Isner, the Stars fell behind 87 seconds into the game and – despite tying the score on three separate occasions – never led. The Stars leveled at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3, on a tap-in by Seguin with 4:08 remaining. But in a frenzied third period that saw four goals in 5:16, the Blues answered to take the game and a 2-1 series lead.
Pat Maroon set up his game-winner with a deft-but-obvious shove to the back that sent the Stars’ Esa Lindell sprawling to the ice in the crease. Unchecked, Maroon, all 6-foot-3 of him, took a pass off the boards behind the net and found himself one-on-one with Bishop at point-blank range. His flip shot somehow sneaked between the goalie’s crooked elbow and underarm, rustling in the roof netting with 1:38 remaining.
The four goals surrendered by Bishop were the most by a Stars opponent in these playoffs and the most in 11 games going back a full month.
With Game 4 looming night in Dallas, the season series has been as predictable as it has quirky. In 420 minutes of hockey over seven games, there has yet to be a lead change. If the Stars are to become the first DFW sports team to win a second-round playoff game or series since the Texas Rangers in 2011 – the Mavs also advanced that far in ’11, the Stars in ’08 and the Cowboys not since ’95 – they must win Wednesday over a Blues team that is 4-0 on the road this postseason.
To do that, Bishop will have to stop resting on his laurels and start standing on his head. More games than not in these playoffs, he’s been the best Star on the ice. Not Monday.
The Stars’ goalie lineage is simple: Andy Moog ’94-97, Belfour ’98-02, Turco ’03-10, Kari Lehtonen ’11-17 and Bishop ’18-19. Bishop, who made his 100th start in net for Dallas Monday night, actually has a chance to be the best.
Belfour was a surly isolationist that was famously arrested in ’00 at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas for drunken, disorderly conduct in the form of putting a hotel employee in a headlock, kicking and spitting at security guards, vomiting on himself, and finally offering a bribe of $1 billion to police officers. He led the Stars to back-to-back Stanley Cup appearances and hoisted the trophy in ’99, so all is forgiven.
Turco is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins, but had a nasty habit of ruining spectacular regular seasons with playoff pratfalls. In a sport that crowned its champ in summer heat, he was Mr. October. After being blown off the ice as the No. 2 seed by the underdog Avalanche, Turco shaved his head, lost some weight and nonetheless suffered a similar letdown against the Canucks the following season. He led the Stars to the Western Conference Finals, but never past them.
Now comes Bishop, who as a teenager cut his hockey teeth playing for the amateur, junior Texas Tornado. But as a St. Louis native and member of the Blues at the time, he was ecstatic on one of our worst sports days: Cardinals over Rangers, Game 6 of the 2011. As a 15-year-old Blues fan, he also admits to heckling Belfour on the glass in the teams’ 2001 playoff series.
“The Rangers are my favorite American League team, so I think I can balance it out that way,” he said before the series started. “And, yeah, I was a hometown Blues fan. But look, times change, right?”
If we can forgive Belfour’s boorishness, we can forget Bishop’s unsightly loyalty. But, first, he’s got to win.
Tied for the tallest goalie in NHL history at 6-7, Bishop arrived via trade from the Los Angeles Kings in 2017 and promptly signed a six-year, $30 million contract. Despite playing with five teams in his 10-year career, he’s still only 32 and in his prime.
Stars general manager Jim Nill has had his share of whiffs since taking the job in 2013, but acquiring Bishop for essentially a fourth-round draft pick was a transformative heist. Among full-time, all-time goalies, Bishop is the Stars’ leader in career save percentage. He’s a three-time All-Star and this year – for the third time – he’s one of three finalists for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top goalie. Confirmation that he is indeed the Stars’ most important player, when Bishop was injured late last season the team fell apart and missed the playoffs.
More than any other sport, Stanley Cups can be won singularly by a hot goalie. Bishop on a roll – as he was in the opening series against Nashville – is akin to having Clayton Kershaw pitching not every fifth game, but every night.
All four Blues’ goals in Game 3 were essentially the result of Stars defensemen losing one-on-one battles for space in the front of the net.
Bishop has been great.
For the Stars to continue, he’s got to be even better.