Bowness said the entire team wasn't ready, and that the blame falls to everyone in the room, including the coaching staff.
"We weren't ready to play, we weren't ready to compete. Nobody was ready," Bowness said. "To defend against that team, it takes hard work, and we got outworked. There's no sugar coating it."
Because the NHL is trying to protect its players from potential disclosure of medical information, it has come up with the phrase "unfit to play" for any ailment. Because of that, we really don't know what has been wrong with Bishop, who has not even dressed as a backup goalie since beating Calgary, 5-4, in Game 2 of that first-round series.
However, he clearly has had to battle to get back in, and he clearly had rust in his game. Bowness said that's a tough judgment to make when you consider how the Stars played.
"It looked like it was unfair what was going on in front of him," Bowness said. "Did he look fine? Yeah, he looked sharp. On some of those goals, we just let guys walk in and tap it in."
The Stars' top line was trying to make a play in the offensive zone early in the game, and Colorado did a great job of counter-attacking. Logan O'Conner raced up the right wing and passed across the ice to Pierre-Edourd Bellemare, who one-timed in his second goal of the playoffs. It was a pretty play, and wasn't Bishop's fault, but it opened the door for doubt.
Bishop coughed up a juicy rebound for goal No. 2, and then was beat by an uncovered Nathan MacKinnon in the slot to make it 3-0. Bishop then allowed another rebound in a goal-mouth scramble, and it was 4-0 and he was pulled for Anton Khudobin.