Florida Panthers bench Sergei Bobrovsky, Keith Yandle for Game 3 vs. Lightning in Tampa
The Florida Panthers will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in a virtual must-win situation Thursday without its two highest paid players.
With the Panthers trailing 2-0 in the series, Joel Quenneville benched both Sergei Bobrovsky and Keith Yandle for Game 3 in Tampa. Bobrovsky is on the bench to back up Chris Driedger, while Yandle is inactive after struggling through the first two games of the series in Sunrise.
“I thought he played well,” Quenneville said of Driedger. “I think that Bob definitely had some merit in the discussion, as well. That was the move. We didn’t give him any run support last game. I think in front of him he didn’t get the workload that Bob saw, at the same time. It wasn’t an easy decision.”
Bobrovsky is the highest paid player on the team, making an average of $10 million per year. Yandle is the second highest paid player on the active roster, making more than $6 million a year.
Defenseman Aaron Ekblad, the second highest paid player on the team behind Bobrovsky, is also out and on long-term injured reserve after sustaining a leg fracture in March.
Driedger started Game 2 for the Panthers on Tuesday, giving up a pair of first-period goals in their 3-1 loss in Sunrise. Still, he outperformed Bobrovsky, who gave up five goals in Game 1 and earned the starting nod for Game 3 at Amalie Arena.
While Bobrovsky started the majority of games in the regular season, the goaltenders typically alternated starts when both were healthy and Driedger, in his smaller role, was one of the most productive goalies in the NHL. His .927 save percentage was tied for fourth best in the league and his 2.07 goals against averaged ranked fifth.
Bobrovsky finished the regular season with a .906 save percentage and 2.91 goals against average.
While Bobrovsky’s year was an improvement on his debut season in South Florida, it was still the second worst since he was a 23-year-old, second-year goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2011-12 NHL season. Last year, Bobrovsky posted a meager .900 save percentage with a career-worst 3.23 goals against average — and it came in the first year of a seven-year, $70-million contract after he won a pair of Vezina Trophies with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013 and 2017.
Bobrovsky got the starting nod for Game 1 on Saturday at the BB&T Center and gave up five goals on 40 shots. Driedger gave up two goals on 28 shots in Game 2.
Goaltending has been a clear difference in the series, particularly in Game 2. The Panthers had a significant edge in Corsi, Fenwick, expected goals, scoring chances and, particularly, high-danger scoring chances. Florida had a 16-6 edge in high-danger chances Tuesday after finishing Game 1 with a 11-9 advantage in such chances.
With the Panthers in danger of dropping three straight games to start the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, Driedger has proved to be more reliable so far, but he still needs to be better to prevent Florida from slipping into a near-insurmountable deficit.
Yandle also struggled through his first two games of the series, committing four giveaways, including multiple resulting in Lightning goals. The defenseman has the league’s longest active games-played streak, but it only counts regular-season games, meaning the Panthers can scratch him for a postseason game without jeopardizing his chase for the longest streak in NHL history. He has currently played in 922 straight regular season games, leaving him 42 short of tying the NHL record.
There have been three 3-0 comebacks in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, most recently in the first round of the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, when the Los Angeles Kings rallied past the San Jose Sharks and eventually went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Flyers also came back from the a 3-0 deficit against the Boston Bruins in the second round of the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs and wound up reaching the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. There were two other 3-0 comebacks in 1942 and 1975.
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 11:50 AM.
