Ben Bishop Jersey Card

Once again, Ben Bishop is quietly having a Vezina consideration-worthy season, leading the league in save percentage. He is by far the biggest reason why the Dallas Stars will be making the playoffs, especially since Jamie Benn's having a very difficult season with just 47 points in 67 games so far.

Sportsnet conducted an analysis comparing Bishop's save percentage in just about every situation not just to the rest of the league but also his backup Anton Khudobin (who "benefits" from the same offense-depleted roster and playing style), so despite seeing fiercest competition by definition of his #1 role, Bishop's outplaying everybody in the NHL except likely Vezina winner Andrei Vasilevskiy this season, who trails him by one point (.933 vs .932):

Sure, the three-game shutout streak (breaking Ed Belfour's old record by five minutes before leaving the game with a lower-body injury) helped with his stats line, but he was having an MVP season until then anyway. He already had three shutouts in the bank on a team whose defense reads like a who's who of who's who: star defenseman John Klingberg missed 18 games due to an injury, Miro Heiskanen is a rookie, Esa Lindell is looking like a good second-pairing defender, and Ben Lovejoy, Taylor Fedun and Roman Polak are supposed to be extras who won't produce much offensively but will finish with a +/- of around 0 in a good year yet were pushed onto roles that may be bigger than they can handle because Julius Honka (29 games played) and Marc Methot (9) were each sidelined for most of the season.

The team's Top-10 scoring leaders also looks like that of a team waiting for the lottery to give them a high draft pick:

from HockeyDB

And yet, not only do they look like a lock for the playoffs, they may even finish above Wild Card status:

This, to me, has Bishop as a nominee for the Hart Trophy (league MVP) as well, likely finishing third behind Tampa Bay Lightning magician Nikita Kucherov and Calgary Flames leader Johnny Gaudreau.

And so I thought it'd be a good moment to focus on card #GJ-BI from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

You might recall it from a Box Break from late December. It shows him wearing the Stars' beautiful green (away) uniform with 25th Anniversary (of their move to Dallas) patch, and prominently featuring a white game-worn jersey swatch.

Ben Bishop Autographed Card

How much faith did I have in the Tampa Bay Lightning facing off against the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final? Obviously, way too much. I was keeping this card up my sleeve for a Ben Bishop return, which I expected to be a Game 7 shutout for some reason:

It's card #78 from Panini's 2010-11 All Goalies set, showing Bishop back when he was playing for his hometown Blues. It's signed in blue sharpie, and I got it in the mail last winter.

Trade rumours are currently clouding his future in Tampa Bay what with up-and-comer Andrei Vasilevskiy successfully taking over for the Bolts when Bishop pulled something in his leg in the first game of the Conference Finals, but I wouldn't trade him unless you got equal value for him, which, with Marc-André Fleury also rumoured to be available soon, might not be possible.

We are, after all, talking about a two-time Vezina nominee and Team USA representative, here. You would need a first-liner (of which the Lightning has plenty already), a first pairing defenseman or a top-20 first round draft pick to come out even in such a trade.

Although losing a Steven Stamkos to free agency wouldn't hurt so much if a Sam Bennett came along... but if I were GM Steve Yzerman, I'd aim for a T.J. Brodie for my back end or a Carey Price to give myself an extra year to ponder Vasilevskiy's future..

Ben Bishop Jersey Card

It's been a good week for Ben Bishop...

A day after being named to Team USA for September's World Cup, Bishop was in net for the Tampa Bay Lightning's team record eighth-straight win - against his former Ottawa Senators team, no less - making 33 saves in a 4-1 win in the process. His record against the Sens? 9-0-3...

Then again, all three of my favourite goalies made the World Cup's initial rosters: Bishop for the Americans, Corey Crawford for Team Canada, and Jaroslav Halak for Team Europe...

How good is Bishop? In October, the Vezina nomine became the Bolts' all-time wins leader in just his third full season with the team, surpassing Stanley Cup winner Nikolai Khabibulin... with 84. I'm not sure how much Tampa is committed to Bishop with Andrei Vasilevskiy and Kristers Gudlevskis in the pipeline, however, at 29 years old, entering his prime, he could reasonably be expected to win at least 35 games per in the next five seasons, which would lead him close to 300, the kind of number most franchise goalies get to.

In the NHL game series, I usually choose the Montréal Canadiens in Be A GM mode, and my first move is usually to grab Bishop and Alex Killorn for Carey Price, and start winning some Stanley Cups.

Here he is, with his Tron-inspired mask, wearing the Lightning's blue (home) uniform, on card #GJ-BI from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 1 collection and UD Game Jersey sub-set, featuring a matching game-worn jersey swatch:

The line that appears on his blocker side is from the penny sleeve of another card I scanned at the same time and didn't realize was overlapping.

Ben Bishop Jersey Card

I hinted at this card when I featured Ray Bourque two weeks ago, and with his win a few minutes ago against the Detroit Red Wings, I thought it'd be a good time to talk about Ben Bishop again.

One of last year's Vezina Trophy finalists, Bishop didn't play particularly well tonight, and wasn't as good this season as some might have hoped, with a 2.32 GAA and .916 save percentage - but those were fine numbers for a team that finished first in scoring and who were finding the right balance of defensive play for the surprise offensive prowess its second line was giving them.

I'd say Bishop ranks second among American-born NHL goalies these days (behind super-clutch Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Quick), and third among my own favourite goalies (behind Jaroslav Halak and Corey Crawford).

He's huge (6'7'', 220 pounds), covers a whole lot of the net, has lightning-quick reflexes and is in the top-5 in puck-handling - even posting a 2-assist game against my hometown Montréal Canadiens (and their own fine puck-moving goalie in Carey Price). He's bound to have another Vezina-caliber season soon, as the many Cinderella stories (Price, Devan Dubnyk) this season has laid witness to will likely not be repeated, and the law of averages should prevail. His quality starts percentage is impressive, and has been throughout his entire career; those are the types of numbers that never lie.

So when I was able to grab this card for a buck on Ebay along with the aforementioned Bourque one, I didn't think twice:

Don't let the penny sleeve fool you, this card's actually in better shape than the Bourque one.

It's from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Trilogy set (#T-TBL3 of the Tryptichs sub-set, numbered 237/400), showing him wearing the Tampa Bay Lightning's blue (home) uniform, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Ben Bishop: 3 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

On a night where both his former team (St. Louis Blues) and his present team (Ottawa Senators) are both playing tie-breaking playoff games, it was great to receive these 3 Ben Bishop cards this morning, signed in black sharpie with his jersey number (30) tagged at the end. I sent him these with a fan letter, care of the Senators, exactly a month ago, on March 15th.

Bishop grew up in St. Louis, so it was only natural for the Blues to pick him in the third round of the 2005 draft with the 85th overall pick, and the tallest goalie to ever play in the NHL did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, at training camp before this season, he was the best Blues goalie on the ice; unfortunately, he was also the only one with a two-way contract, and he was sent to the AHL's Peoria Rivermen, whose jersey can be seen below:

That card is from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (card #49, the Future Stars sub-set) - the actual card has much brighter shades of blue and yellow, although it doesn't make it any prettier... the damn Rbk piping leading to the underarms still makes me cringe...

(continued in the next post)

Ben Bishop: 3 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

(continued from the previous post)

In that vein, while I'm no fan of the current jersey (I very much prefer all the older versions, from the 70s to the 80s to the 90s - yes, even the red-striped Gretzky-era jerseys), the Rbk Blues jerseys are still much better-looking than their AHL counterparts:

The card on the left is from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Power Play box set (card #383), which serves as his rookie card; the card on the right is from Panini's 2011-12 Score set (card #410), in which it is clear his shoulders cover the net even when he's on his knees. His 6'7'' frame coupled with cat-like reflexes made him the best goalie ''not in the NHL'' this season, and likely the Sens' goalie of the future - provided he re-signs there after next season.