In his ten years in the NHL, Ben Bishop has been an all-star, a Vezina finalist and played in the Stanley Cup Final. But in the second round of these 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Bishop is getting ready to do something he's never done before; Take on his former and childhood team as the opposing goalie in the playoffs.
Even before the Dallas Stars beat Nashville in game six of their first round match up, Bishop's father, who is actually Ben Jr., had an eye on that next opponent for his son's team. The hometown St. Louis Blues.
Now the stage is set for a homecoming that will put the younger Bishop at odds with the team he grew up rooting for, and was drafted by.
Bishop was drafted by the Blues in the third round of the 2005 NHL Draft, and went on to play 13 games as a Blue before being dealt to Ottawa.
His path then took him to Tampa and the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, the Kings in 2016-2017 and now to Dallas where he's posted the highest save percentage and lowest GAA of his career.
Now Ben is back. Attempting to end the season of the team he cheered for growing up.
Ben Jr. and his son have some fond memories of attending Blues playoff games when Ben was just a youngster, and how the crowd used to get on the opposing goalies.
"We went to many of them," Ben Jr. said. "It started back in the days of the arena when he was a youngster. We remember the crowd chanting the names of the opposing goaltenders. He remembers the Chicago Blackhawks and going, 'Bel-four, Bel-four' (For Blackhawks goalie Ed Belfour). So he's like ' Dad I can't believe it. I'm going to be in St. Louis and they're going to be going Bish-op, Bish-op.' And I said, 'isn't that a pretty cool thing?' Then he goes, '18,000 people calling out name? All good.'"
Bishop Jr. knows his son will have a little more of an edge to his game this round.
"I think he will feel the emotion walking onto the ice as he did in his first game, in front of his hometown and home friends in St. Louis. But after ten years of playing professional hockey, he'll put his game face on. But trust me, at the end of the day he'll be smiling no matter what."
Ben Jr. operates "Bishop's Post", a restaurant in Chesterfield. He said even though he and as many friends as he can afford will be at the games in person, there will be viewing parties at the restaurant.
As for the question of team allegiance at those parties...
"Any friend that's not going for the Dallas Stars will not be welcome back at Bishop's Post," Bishop laughed.