Uninjured goalies aren’t often pulled during one-goal games, but that’s what happened Tuesday night when Ben Bishop got yanked from the Dallas Stars crease.
Bishop allowed three goals on 17 shots in what ended up being a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche and Stars coach Ken Hitchcock decided to replace him with backup Kari Lehtonen roughly six minutes into the second frame. Suffice it to say, Bishop wasn’t pleased and didn’t mince words when speaking with reporters following the game.
“There was no reason for me to come out,” Bishop said. “I guess that’s the coach’s decision but it’s a 3-2 hockey game with more than half the game left, so I’m not very happy with the decision. There’s still a lot of hockey left and it’s a 3-2 game and I felt good and, you know, not very happy with the decision.”
The 30-year-old netminder, whom the Stars signed to a six-year, $29.5-million contract in May after acquiring his rights from the Los Angeles Kings, was out of position after a failed poke check attempt on the Avs’ first goal. His mishandling of the puck behind the net led directly to the second goal and less than two minutes later he was caught reaching for the puck as Gabriel Landeskog patiently slid a shot into the Stars net.
“There’s a lot of fight in this locker room. The game wasn’t over,” Bishop said. “I don’t know what the reason [for being pulled] was but I’m fully confident that we can come back when we’re losing 3-2 on the road.”
Don Cherry said during a recent Coach’s Corner segment he would implore coaches to avoid pulling a goalie — especially a star goalie — in the middle of a period, thinking cooler heads prevail when goalie changes are made in between periods.
Hitchcock told reporters his decision had more to do with his team’s lack of momentum rather than solely Bishop’s performance.
“We were slow and dozy across the board, everybody, the whole team. Needed a wake-up call, so we got it,” Hitchcock explained. “It has nothing to do with Ben. I’ll do the same with any other goaltender. If I think it’s going to help the team to change their mindset, I’ve got to do whatever it takes. So that’s what I did.”
Prior to Tuesday, Bishop had been largely terrific. He is 5-1-0 with a 2.38 goals-against average and .920 save percentage.
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