How important is the ‘hot goalie’ in the NHL playoffs? Panthers hope they’ll find out
It happens almost every year, usually right around this time.
Some goaltender — sometimes an established star and other times a lesser-known role player or youngster — becomes unbeatable.
The “hot goaltender” can carry a team all the way through the Stanley Cup playoffs if he stays locked in long enough. Sometimes he can even win his team a championship.
The Florida Panthers believe they have a candidate to be the hot goaltender this year, whenever the NHL’s expanded 24-team playoff is able to begin. It’ll be time for Sergei Bobrovsky to justify his $70 million contract.
“He was disappointed with his season up to now,” general manager Dale Tallon said on a video conference call. “I think he has something to prove and that’s a good thing, so I expect him to be at the top of his game and when he’s at the top of his game you have a chance to win.”
The NHL announced an outline of its plan to return to action Tuesday and it sends the Panthers, who were on the outside of the postseason picture when the season halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, into a modified playoff format.
Florida is one of 12 Eastern Conference teams slated to participate at a date and location to be determined.
The Panthers, however, know they’re the No. 10 seed and will play a best-of-5 series against the New York Islanders in a qualifying round to earn a spot in the more traditional 16-team bracket. The modified format could feature best-of-5 series all the way up until the conference, which means the potential for an upset-heavy postseason.
Tallon doesn’t necessarily mean the goaltender becomes more important. Goalie, he said, is always the “most important” position in the postseason, which is why Florida went out and signed Bobrovsky in the offseason.
The 31-year-old had an underwhelming debut regular season with the Panthers, but he came to South Florida as an established superstar with two Vezina Trophies as the NHL’s top goaltender.
In the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, Bobrovsky helped the Columbus Blue Jackets, the East’s final playoff team, shock the top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning with a four-game sweep by saving 107 shots and allowing just eight goals.
In the second round, Bobrovsky helped the Blue Jackets jump out to a 2-1 series lead on the Boston Bruins before they fell in six despite a 42-save effort from Bobrovsky in Game 4.
“Obviously, if your goaltending gets hot for that segment you’ve got a chance to win. I think it’s the most important part of the playoffs, anyway, whether it’s seven games, three games or five games,” Tallon said. “There’s less room for error, obviously, in five games than seven. But you can bounce back from a bad game or two in a seven-game series, but you can’t in a five-game series, so, yeah, it’s important. It’s the most important part of all of it. A hot goaltender can get you deep into the playoffs.”
