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Dallas Stars Ben Bishop, Others Out with Injury

Ben Bishop

The Dallas Stars will be without starting goaltender Ben Bishop for tonight’s game against the Edmonton Oilers. The goalie is dealing with a lower-body injury per coach Rick Bowness. The team had several other updates for the media that were announced earlier Tuesday morning.

Ben Bishop Hurt

The 33-year-old Bishop is having another quality season in 2019-20. ‘Big Ben” has 21 wins in 41 starts with a .921 save percentage and 2.49 goals-against average. Both of those statistics are good enough to put Bishop solidly inside the top-15 for NHL goaltenders this year. He ranks even higher when you exclude goaltenders who have played in fewer than 10 games this season.

Bishop is still one of the league’s best goaltenders even as he ages into his mid-30s. He has three top-3 finishes for the Vezina trophy in his 11 seasons. Bishop does carry a sizable cap hit for a goaltender of $4.92 million but Dallas is in the middle of its playoff window. Paying a goaltender with Bishop’s history of production is more than acceptable.

What This Means for the Future

Dallas will rely on 33-year-old Anton Khudobin as the primary while Bishop recovers. Khudobin is also have a very good year with a .930 save percentage and 2.23 goals-against-average in 24 starts. The Stars have recalled their first-round pick from 2017, Jake Oettinger, to act as his backup. Oettinger has a .912 save percentage and 2.62 goals-against for the team’s AHL affiliate. Losing Bishop isn’t ideal in the final weeks of the regular season but they are capable of managing in the short-term.

Coach Bowness also indicated that Stephen Johns will return to the lineup but that Roman Polak is out. Johns has appeared in 13 games in 2019-20 with two goals and five points. Polak has just four assists all season but does have 104 hits and 93 blocks. Fans should expect Johns to assume a depth role of some sort and cover Polak’s minutes on the penalty kill with a combination of other defenders.

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