EDMONTON — In an elimination game, the Dallas Stars made a bold choice with their starting goaltender. They would go with Ben Bishop, who had not played a game since Aug. 13, due to some undisclosed injury that head coach Rick Bowness had been convinced Bishop had overcome.
Then he saw his goalie play.
“He had a couple of really sharp practices,” explained Bowness. “When he was given the clearance, with back to back games… the best decision was to go with Bishop.”
Bishop lasted all of 13:43 in the Dallas goal and got the hook with the Stars trailing 4-0. The Colorado Avalanche would greet reliever Anton Khudobin with another goal, and lead 5-0 at the first intermission.
It was as derelict a performance as a team could submit with a chance to bury a dangerous opponent like Colorado. The Stars had cement shoes from the goal crease on out, beaten to every puck by a hungry Colorado team that showed no mercy in what ended up as a 6-3 Game 5 victory.
“Listen, if you’re pointing fingers at Bishop you’re pointing in the wrong direction,” Bowness said. “None of us were ready to go tonight. It starts with me and you can work your way down.
“We weren’t ready to play. There’s no sugar coating it. We got outworked, outhustled. It starts with being ready to play. We weren’t.”
When the warmups began, out came not one but three goalies who had not yet seen the ice in this series. Bishop was debuting for Dallas, while the Avs pronounced Pavel Francouz was “unfit to play,” bringing Michael Hutchinson in for his first career NHL playoff start. Hunter Miska, who arrived in the Edmonton bubble only days ago, backed up Hutchinson.
It’s been a whacky series, with both team’s No. 1’s — Bishop and Philipp Grubauer — lost to injury. But in Game 5 it was the Dallas starter making his return against Colorado’s No. 3. The Stars should have had the edge, right?
Then Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored at the 4:37 mark. Then, in a span of 2:36 the Avs pumped in four more goals.
Score effects took over before the 13:00 mark. This one was irretrievable.
“We had an opportunity to close the door. Obviously, their season is on the line,” said Bishop. “I’ll take the blame. You’ve got to come up with a save there, no matter what the circumstances are. Unfortunately (he let in) too many. So, I’ll take the blame.”
Truly, Bishop was no better or worse than his team on this night. The skaters let their goalie down, big-time.
“That’s an understatement,” said checking centreman Andrew Cogliano. “I think Bish is the best goalie in the league when he’s at top of his game. Our first 10 minutes was an absolute joke. Bish will take the blame. He’ll put it on himself. But we were atrocious.
“This has nothing to do with our goalie. We’re wasting our time if we’re talking about our goalie. We let him down.”
Nathan MacKinnon was everywhere Monday, notching two points to stay atop the NHL playoffs scoring race (8-15-23) while extending his points streak to 13 games. The Avs have only played 13 games in Edmonton.
“We knew that we had to show our best self. (They were) not happy about the way we started the game last game,” Bellemare said. “In this situation we knew it was a do or die and we started pretty well maybe because of that. We just decided to show our best version of ourselves tonight, at the start at least.”
Meanwhile, the former Winnipeg Jet and Toronto Maple Leaf Hutchinson cashed in his first career playoff win in his maiden playoff start.
“I’m real happy for Hutch,” said Avs coach Jared Bednar. “Since the day we got him, he’s come in every day, went about his business… He’s a real quiet guy in the locker room, just a great human being. Talking to him last night when I was telling him he was going to start, I just wanted him to be relaxed and go be himself and just have a fun night, a good night.”
Who starts in goal in Wednesday’s Game 6, with the Stars holding a 3-2 series lead?
It’s a decent bet that the Avs stick with Hutchinson, depending on the injuries to Francouz and Grubauer.
As for Dallas…
“This game was so bad,” Bowness said. “We’ve got a lot to digest here before we get to that decision on Wednesday.”
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