In an increasingly familiar turn of events, the Dallas Stars’ contender for a league trophy was passed over for a player who simply wasn’t quite as good, but did have more wins. That’s probably important, but winning is a team sport, while save percentage is very much on the goaltender.
Ben Bishop has been nominated for the Vezina Trophy three times, and this is his third loss. He joins Roberto Luongo and Curtis Joseph in the unlucky category of being nominated three times for the award with zero wins.
It should have been Bishop’s, and this loss feels rather bitter after his stellar season. Sure, he only had 27 wins under his belt, but it seems unfair to grade a netminder’s performance by wins and losses when the team in front of him couldn’t buy offense for the better part of the entire season (and the playoffs). In 46 games played, Ben Bishop led the NHL in save percentage with a .934, and came second in goals-against average at 1.98.
This is much better, by the way, than Robin Lehner with .930 and 2.13 in the same number of games, and Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy with .925 and 2.40 but a league leading 39 wins.
It’s a frustrating cap to a frustrating season, but there were quite a few good bits along the way, and the Stars have this stellar goaltender in the net for another four years. Take a look at some soothing highlights and gird your loins for next season.