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Dallas Stars Daily Links: The Stars’ Starting Goalie Is A Game-Day Decision

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

By the time you read this, the Dallas Stars may have announced their starting goalie for Game 6. Should interim head coach Rick Bowness put in Ben Bishop, who was so heroic in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs? Or will he stick with Anton Khudobin, who backstopped the Stars into a Round 2 advantage that not even Monday’s 6-3 loss could negate entirely?

It’s a crucial question. The Stars have another chance to close the deal early against the Colorado Avalanche, and upsetting the balance in goal appeared to have doomed them early in Game 5. Stars senior staff writer Mike Heika examines Bowness’ latest moves in a new article:

Bowness did clarify a lot of things on Tuesday, saying that the Stars had been watching Bishop closely, and that the 33-year-old veteran had looked good in practice. So when the team had the chance to rest Khudobin, who had been on a run of eight games in 16 days, they took it.

Of course, they also had to get the green light from Bishop, who has been battling an undisclosed injury and has not even dressed as a back-up.

“When your No. 1 goalie comes to you and says he wants to play and he’s ready to play, that makes the decision a little easier,” Bowness said.

Bishop’s short, surprising return from an undisclosed malady didn’t end well. And it may have made it difficult to remember that he was last season’s Vezina Trophy runner-up and carried a .933 save percentage in the 2019 playoffs. Bowness had something to say about that, too:

“The starting goalie is not the issue. The issue is how we played in front of the starting goalie, whether it was Dobby, the kid Jake (Oettinger) or Bish,” Bowness said. “We just had to play better in front of him. The starting goalie is not the issue.”…

“We’ll have discussions as a staff, we’ll see who is the best fit for that game tomorrow night,” Bowness said Tuesday. “It’ll come down to that. Our preference is never to play a goalie back-to-back unless you absolutely have to. We have the day off today, and we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.”

There’s more at Mike’s place. [Dallas Stars]

Stars Stuff

Matthew DeFranks brings you the rest of the story on Bishop’s Game 5 return.

Nervous about Game 6? Let Razor help with that.

Sean Shapiro doesn’t know, and yet he does.

Around The League(s)

The Philadelphia Flyers aren’t going home yet. They extended their series with a 4-3 overtime win against the New York Islanders.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1, with Thatcher Demko keeping their Round 3 hopes alive in his first playoffs start.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference finals, but they hope they won’t have to start the round without franchise forward Nikita Kucherov.

The Eastern Conference’s bubble hotel axed an existing catering contract to hire a provider that owns a stake in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now they’re getting sued into the ground.

And THN’s Matt Larkin takes a look at the next big names who are getting ice time in the European leagues.

Finally

Well, that settles it. Get ready for the Western Conference finals, Stars fans.

Talking Points