How the Stars Should Use Both of Their Goalies in the Playoffs

Having both Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin as goaltenders is a luxury for the Dallas Stars.

Especially come playoff time this isn’t a bad problem to have. The best goaltending led the club to a clinched playoff berth for consecutive seasons. A first since 2008 when the Stars went five seasons in a row.

Both goalies for the Stars Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin finished in the top ten in the two most important NHL regular-season starts, according to CBS Sports.

Goals against, and save percentage. Khudobin finished first in save percentage and tied for third in goals-against average. Bishop finished tenth in both categories. This is a netminding duo the entire team will want to go to war with. The quality in net should fire up the skaters to score more often. Also, continue to play stout defense like they have all year as it might help to get back to Dallas Stars penalty-killing too.

Without question, the Dallas Stars will start Ben Bishop for the postseason. While stats might be debatable amongst fans he has the resume, Bishop has had one year of postseason experience with the Stars.

As quoted by Mike Heika, senior staff writer for the Stars.

“Bishop last season started all 13 playoff games for the Stars and ranked fourth in goals-against average at 2.22 and third in save percentage at .933.”

Anton Khudobin has yet to start a playoff game in his entire career. Especially with round-robin that could change.

This is one of the uneasiest topics for the Stars come playoff time. While Ben Bishop is at minimum a top ten NHL goalie, he has had multiple injuries in his career. For the most part, injuries have been a lower body. It’s also worth noting that the injury bug has stayed away from Bishop this past year. This includes lower body soreness towards the end of this year’s regular season.

Time will tell how often Ben Bishop starts and plays. He might even play so well that Khudobin gets zero ice time for all we know. Unlikely, but Bishop is arguably the best player on the Dallas Stars roster. If the Stars are to make a deep run in the playoffs, then Bishop will have to put up numbers like he did last year. Given the Stars’ goal-scoring struggles.