Ben Bishop's Tough Year
When Ben Bishop came over in the trade from the St. Louis Blues last season and played well, it gave the Senators another young goalie in the stable. From a development perspective though, his year has been tough.
Ben Bishop hasn't exactly had a year to write home about. As a young goalie who was slated to start his first full season as an NHL goaltender, the NHL lockout came at a bad time for him. Instead of going through an NHL training camp and playing in some NHL exhibition games, he was sitting at home. Instead of fighting with Robin Lehner for the backup job behind Craig Anderson, he was sitting at home.
Now the best thing for any young player, especially a goalie, is to be playing games and practicing with the team. While many NHL players have taken their talents overseas, only very elite goaltenders to this point have been approached, and Ben Bishop, while tall, is not Pekka Rinne. Not yet at least. So while others were playing in some European leagues, he was sitting at home.
Trying to make the best of the situation, Bryan Murray signed him to an AHL deal so that he could play with the club's affiliate in Binghamton. While this was obviously better than sitting at home, the AHL is a league that Ben Bishop has already proven he can dominate, and is almost below him at this point. Not to mention, the Baby Sens are Robin Lehner's team, and having them split time may not be the best thing for either of them. Regardless, it was the best option available, so it was chosen.
Then Ben went to Bingo, and got sick, so had to leave practice and delay his first start by almost a week. When he finally DID start yesterday, he got shelled by Manchester and the Baby Sens lost the game 4-0. According to Travis Yost on twitter, Ben didn't look particularly good in the game, but the Monarchs have been playing well this season and Bishop by all accounts should be rusty, so I say we give him a pass. I'm just hoping we see something good from Ben Bishop's year soon, because you hate to see a drop off in momentum with a young player's career.
Sens Links
- Here is a recap of that Monarchs-BSens game from the Bingo site. [BSENS]
- Bobby is in fine form lately, covering the Senators prospects and giving us some hockey fix. Here he is with a prospect roundup. [SSS]
- Amelia gets to #14 in Senators by the numbers. Man I loved Radek Bonk, but does anyone else think Chris Campoli as the WORST is a little harsh? (Just kidding Amelia!) [SSS]
- Bobby tries on a non-prospect cap and gives a solid satire-analysis blend checking out that beautiful Heritage jersey and the impact it had on the gentlemen wearing it. [SSS]
- Lovely must read from the 6th Sens who have transcribed a very interesting Luke Richardson interview on the Team 1200 where he talks about Robin Lehner, Jakob Silfverberg and Mika Zibanejad. [6thSens]
- Some Senators may join a Northern Canada hockey tour put together by John Chabot. [SensExtra]
That's all for today. Its nice to be back writing Nuggets, I just hope we have some real hockey to talk about soon!
UPDATE: Bad news on the "real hockey soon" front: An ESPN report is suggesting that the NHL is set to cancel the Winter Classic. [Winging it in Motown]