Dallas Stars News: Ben Bishop’s Return, 2019 Trade Deadline Update
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars wrapped up a short practice on Friday afternoon following a Thursday night victory against the St. Louis Blues. But, there were plenty of storylines to follow outside of just the practice. Here’s your Friday update.
Saturday afternoon will play an important role in determining how good or bad the Dallas Stars‘ current three-game homestand ends up.
On Tuesday night, the Stars kicked off the stand with a 5-3 loss to the Nashville Predators. And though they couldn’t find the two points in that first contest and fell to a third consecutive loss, the effort and energy were present in all three zones after seemingly taking a few games off.
Two nights later, Dallas dug their heels in and fought off a St. Louis Blues team that had won 11 games in a row. The Stars took the higher ground in all three areas of the game and pulled off a big 5-2 victory to reaffirm their footing in the Western Conference wild card race.
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But that’s only two of the three acts. On Saturday afternoon, the Dallas Stars will welcome the Carolina Hurricanes to the American Airlines Center. The Canes have won seven of their past nine games and are stuck in their own playoff battle in the Eastern Conference.
It’s another tall challenge for a Stars team trying to build some momentum before enduring another lengthy road trip.
Dallas held their usual practice on Friday afternoon, but kept it loose for the most part. They skated for around 30 minutes and spent a majority of the time simply taking shots and doing other basic drills.
“We just tried to flush the lactic acid out and get guys feeling the puck so they can stay in a rhythm for tomorrow afternoon,” said Stars head coach Jim Montgomery.
With no morning skate scheduled for Saturday due to the 4 p.m. start time, this practice was an opportunity for the Stars to simply keep their legs going under them after a big win.
Friday afternoon also came with a fair dosage of news, both in relation to the Dallas Stars crease and the fast-approaching NHL Trade Deadline. Here’s a quick rundown if you missed anything.
Big Ben is back and ready for action
The Stars reassigned goaltender Landon Bow to the AHL on Thursday afternoon, giving Ben Bishop the opportunity to dress out for the first time in almost three weeks.
After suffering an upper-body injury in a win against the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 4, Bishop had spent the previous six games on injured reserve. But, after taking the necessary precautions to heal and feeling good enough to back up Anton Khudobin on Thursday night, he looks ready to get back into action.
“It’s nice,” Bishop said following Friday’s practice. “It’s kind of painful there after a while having to go to the rink and just sit around, wait, and watch the guys. It’s fun to be back out there with them today, get a practice, and get some chirps in back and forth. It’s nice to kind of be back on the team.”
“You kind of get a renewed passion for the game,” the goalie added when asked about long stretches on the IR. “You kind of forget about it when you’re doing it day in and day out and when it’s kind of taken away from you for a couple weeks there, you realize how much you miss it and how fun it is competing with the guys. When you can’t do it, you kind of get that renewed passion.”
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In his absence, Dallas Stars backup Anton Khudobin has manned the helm. And while his record shows a 2-4-1 mark during the span, his performances were highly admirable. That includes a 43-45 showing against the Blues on Thursday.
“He’s done great all year and it was no different,” Bishop noted of Khudobin’s performance. “These last couple of weeks, he’s done a great job. He gives us a chance to win every single night, and that’s all you can ask for. He’s been doing it all year, so I’m not really surprised.”
Bishop looks ready to go, but Montgomery pointed out that the team will wait until Saturday to name their starter.
“We think he’s ready to go back in game action, but we’ll make a decision about who is starting tomorrow,” said Montgomery.
In addition, Monty doesn’t know which goalie will start in the second leg of the team’s weekend back-to-back against Chicago on Sunday afternoon.
“More than likely, but we’re going to take it one game at a time,” Monty added. “Two afternoon games, I think we would like to split them, but we’ll see who plays well and how well they play on Saturday.”
Needless to say, it looks like Ben Bishop is back and ready to roll through the final month of the season. And considering how well he and Khudobin have done for the Stars so far, that’s a promising sign.
2019 Trade Deadline happenings
In addition to Bishop’s return, the Dallas Stars also got a chance to digest some league-wide news.
On Friday afternoon, the Ottawa Senators moved their first major trade domino by sending Matt Duchene and a prospect to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for two prospects, a 2019 first-round pick, and a conditional 2020 first-round pick.
This move is important to the Stars for a few different reasons (besides the fact that some fans were hoping the team would trade for him). For one, that’s a steep asking price for a center that could be an unrestricted free agent and sign with another team in just a few months. He was one of the higher talents on the market, but that is a lot in return.
In addition, it also sheds some potential light on the Artemi Panarin rumors. A few days ago, it was reported that the Dallas Stars had asked the Blue Jackets about Panarin. The highly-coveted winger is considered the top target in this year’s deadline frenzy, but his name might be off the market now.
By adding Duchene, the Blue Jackets look to be gearing up for a serious playoff run. They sit just one point out of the Eastern Conference wild card race and two points out of third in the Metropolitan division at the moment. Holding onto Panarin and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and mixing their talents with Duchene’s could make Columbus a viable threat. But that’s just a thought.
As of right now, however, the trade market is still full of potential options that Dallas could have interest in. The next 72 hours will help shed a lot on that subject.
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The Dallas Stars will be back in action tomorrow afternoon as they wrap up their homestand against a hot Hurricanes squad. Get your reading eyes and social media fingers ready for an important and potentially thrilling three days ahead.