Congratulations to the Avs for not accepting the gentleman’s sweep and extending their stay in Edmonton for a few days. The Stars have been sleepwalking since the 2nd period of Monday night, and I don’t blame them too much because why would the Avs want to keep wasting their time with this?

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With the conference finals against Vegas in mind, Bowness decided to give Bishop the nod. Bishop has been ‘unfit to play’ since Game 2 against Calgary and he wasn’t even skating until yesterday.

However, we’re gonna need him against Vegas because they have two goalies in Fleury and Lehner. If/when the series has back-to-backs, the team with two goalies gets a HUGE advantage.

Even if Bishop isn’t feeling the most nimble, it’s best to get him a warmup game against Colorado instead of risking a trial by fire return against Vegas with the Campbell trophy on the line.

Unfortunately, this warmup game turned into a forfeit game…

Bishop is one of the most battle-tested playoff goalies in the league, so I am not worried about his ability to recover mentally. But Fleury’s playoff resume is right there with Bishop and then some, and he’s healthy.

We really need Bishop to get right. I hope this performance was due to rust and not injury. If so, I’m okay with this forfeit.

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As for the current series, the forfeit removes any margin the Stars had sleepwalking. It also might mean some injury help for the Avs. Defenseman Erik Johnson, wingers Matt Calvert/Joonas Donskoi, and goalie Philipp Grubauer are all on the injured list. It’s a complete mystery as to when they could come back.

We cannot let them out of the grave for a Game 7. We must get back to the level we were playing at before the 2nd period of Game 4. Finish them tomorrow night and get rested for the conference finals.