What a year it was for Mike Bishai. The likeable center just returned home to Edmonton after an eventful season that saw him mostly playing in the AHL with Toronto, but included a successful six-week stint in the big league. Bishai got to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams by pulling on an Oiler jersey this past February, but don’t expect the guy to be satisfied with being able to do it this year, he’s already working towards 2004-05.
The Toronto Roadrunners reached the playoffs in their inaugural year, an impressive accomplishment considering Bishai was only one of a small number of players that were together the season before in Hamilton. A lot of the credit, according to Bishai, has to be given to the coaching staff led by Geoff Ward.
“Wardie’s a great coach,” described Bishai who fully expects the bench boss to return for next season. “When we were struggling at the start of the year he was very calm and told all of us not to panic. All the guys really like him and have a lot of respect for him.”
Making the playoffs was exciting, but losing out in the first round was extremely tough to take, especially considering the Roadrunners won the first game of the best of three series against Cleveland before dropping the next two games. All three games were played in Strongsville, Ohio because a figure skating event and a concert by Prince prevented the series from being played in Cleveland’s home arena. There were fewer than 900 people in attendance for the opening game of the series.
“And that was capacity!” exclaimed Bishai on the game.
On a personal level, the playoff loss was even more devastating because according to Bishai,
Game 2, which went into overtime, could have been ended on more then one occasion by Bishai himself.
“It was so frustrating, I just couldn’t bury it and I had a few excellent chances,” the center said with a grimacing smile. “Man, I even had basically an empty net at one point in the overtime and I just couldn’t put it in.”
The Roadrunners lost to Cleveland, a team they had a winning regular season record against, and they had to watch as the Sharks then took on the Hamilton Bulldogs, Toronto’s top rivals who they were really eager to play.
“We would have beaten them,” Bishai stated poignantly. “I think (Hamilton) only beat us once or something all year.”
But it was not to be and fortunately, Bishai had other moments this year that he can look back on with great satisfaction. He was recalled by the Oilers on January 28th and saw his first NHL action the next night against the Chicago Blackhawks in front of friends and family in Edmonton. After poking in a loose puck that crossed to goal line a moment after the referee had blown the play dead, scoring luck turned against him. He would not score a single goal while in Edmonton or back in Toronto for the rest of the season.
“If only that first one would have gone in!” Bishai cringed.
Several times the 5’11” 185 lb pivot came close to lighting the lamp for the Oilers but he could not buy a goal. In a huge game against Dallas, Bishai slid a puck through the goaltender only to see it coast through the crease and gently careen off the goalpost. It’s probably that near goal that haunts Bishai the most.
As to what his favorite memory of his time in Edmonton is, it is a struggle to narrow it down.
“I wish I could say it was that big goal I scored!” He says. “Really I think I have to say the guys in the room. Everyone welcomed me in right from the start and made me feel like I belonged there. You hear about how tight the room is and you expect that some guys don’t really get along but everyone does, they’re all a great bunch of guys.”
He may not have a single stand out moment but the general public certainly has one distinct memory and it is really surprising to him how many people across the country bring up The Fight.
“Everywhere I go I get asked about it,” commented Bishai with a bit of a sigh. “How I ended up in Atlanta’s bench in the first place and stuff like that. Last week I was driving here from Michigan and I crossed the border somewhere in Saskatchewan and when I gave the border guard my passport he says to me ‘Hey, aren’t you that guy who was in Edmonton and got in that fight from the bench?’”
Certainly what Bishai did accomplish in his sojourn through Oilerville was to greatly increase his status in the organization. Few who looked at the depth chart in September would have expected to see the local boy play in Edmonton at all this year but after he had, even fewer could say he looked out of place. The hard working, quick skating and deceptively talented center impressed fans and more importantly, the organization.
“I don’t want to say he came out of nowhere,” Kevin Lowe told Hockey’s Future in March. “But our projections on him were for a couple of years from now, but man he hasn’t shown us one thing that says he can’t play here.”
Bishai did play in Edmonton until March 7 when he was sent back down to the AHL after the Oilers acquired Petr Nedved. It didn’t come as a shock when he was told about the reassignment.
“There was still some time before the deadline so you think maybe something else will happen, but I knew when they got Petr that it was probably coming,” admitted Bishai.
So after 39 days in the NHL, Bishai returned to the Roadrunners for their playoff push but the taste for the big league was never far from his thoughts.
In Toronto, Bishai had the opportunity to play with several key Oiler prospects and had plenty of good things too say about them.
“I played on a line with Brad Winchester and I really think he’s going to be a good player,” began Bishai about the rookie who struggled in the first half of the schedule. “I told him that if I had his size I’d just barrel straight to the net and shrug guys off of me along the way! Every time I had the puck I just told him to head to the net and that’s where he was at his best.”
Mike Morrison is another guy who, like Bishai, exceeded expectations this year. He was not supposed to be a part of the Roadrunners much at all but by the end of the season he was statistically the best keeper in Toronto.
“He’s a very good confidence goalie,” Bishai explained. “When he’s on his game and feeling good he can win games for us almost by himself.”
According to Bishai, his good friend Jani Rita is still a player who can make an impact in the NHL and another Roadrunner he feels Oiler fans should keep an eye on is pesky forward Dan Baum.
“He’s the kind of guy you definitely want on your team, he’s like Tyson Nash,” described Bishai.
“He’s willing to do anything and he has more talent then he gets credit for.”
Bishai’s closest friends on the team were also his roommates at home, Nate DiCasmirro and Bobby Allen. The three of them shared an apartment this past year in Toronto and living together produced almost as many noteworthy events as playing together. One such incident involved a malfunctioning dishwasher, some hardwood floor and the laws of nature.
“I remember that night,” Bishai laughs as he recalls the story. “(DiCasmirro) was laying in bed and he had put stuff in the dishwasher and I was like ‘DiCaz, don’t forget to turn it off.’ And he said ‘yeah’ but I knew he wouldn’t. So the next day we wake up and the whole place is flooded. We live in an apartment where our kitchen and our living room are attached so we come walking in the morning and our feet are like ‘squish squish’ and water is coming up through the cracks of the hardwood. And DiCaz is like ‘we’re not going to have to pay for it’ and I was like ‘what’s this we crap? I’m not paying for anything!’”
The trio have all since left Toronto and are not expecting to collect on their damage deposit.
“I’m just waiting for a call from the landlord!” joked Bishai.
Bishai is back in Edmonton after spending a few weeks in Kalamazoo trying to take get enrolled in some courses at Western Michigan, his old college stomping grounds, in order to complete his studies.
Although it could be a very long time before next season, Bishai has already been active with a workout regiment and will soon meet with Daryl Duke, Edmonton’s fitness guru, for training over the off season. Between now and the next training camp, he’ll will spend his time watching the Stanley Cup finals, as painful as it may be, because he just loves the game.
Bishai has also viewed the Hockey’s Future website recently and took special interest in the fact that he is currently on the outside looking in according to the top 20 prospects list on the Oiler page.
“You know what, I really don’t look to see where I rank in lists like that, I just go into camp intent on being better than the guy ahead of me,” he said although he couldn’t help adding one more thing with a knowing smile. “I’ll prove you wrong.”
One could argue that Bishai’s rapid development this year facilitated the midseason trading of Peter Sarno and that the local kid should be considered to some extent for a NHL roster spot next year. Should Petr Nedved not return to Edmonton, Bishai’s chances at a NHL job increase even more so.
The down to earth player is comfortably back in his hometown housesitting for Raffi Torres over the summer but if he has it his way, Edmonton would be his home all year round. With any luck, that will be determined in September when training camps are scheduled to start up once again, days after the current CBA expires.
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