Panthers’ Bobrovsky caps tumultuous month with shutout, says he’s only focused on hockey
The last month has rarely been easy for Sergei Bobrovsky. The 33-year-old Russian missed more than two weeks in the middle of March after a puck hit him in the face on the bench, leaving him with more than a dozen stitches, a bout with inflammation, and trouble breathing and seeing. His first two games back weren’t exactly smooth, either, and he coughed up seven goals behind a revamped defense.
It was all happening at the same time Russia is invading Ukraine, too, and Bobrovsky said he’s trying to stay focused on hockey, rather than what the war means for his family and the region.
Still, the star goaltender managed to put together a perfect month, winning all seven of his starts, and he capped it with maybe his best performance yet for the Florida Panthers. On Thursday, he stopped all 37 shots he faced to blank the Chicago Blackhawks and anchor a 4-0 win in Sunrise.
“He was locked in,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said.
Even though there was a lopsided final score, Bobrovsky kept the game tied for long enough for the Panthers (46-15-6) to finally take a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period and the two-time Vezina Trophy winner bailed out his defense about half a dozen times to keep the Blackhawks (24-34-10) from ever really threatening Florida.
He made 13 of his saves against high-danger chances and five while the Panthers were shorthanded. In the middle of the second period, he ripped off a three-save sequence — denying star winger Alex DeBrincat twice, then sliding to his left to stuff Chicago forward Ryan Strome against a briefly wide-open net — to keep Florida ahead 1-0 and give left wing Ryan Lomberg a chance to double the Panthers’ lead a few seconds later.
Florida’s lead was 3-0 by the end of the second period and star center Aleksander Barkov pushed it to 4-0 on a 5-on-3 one-timer — off Jonathan Huberdeau’s 71st assist of the year, which set an NHL record for most in a single season by a left wing — with 6:13 to shift the focus to preserving Bobrovsky’s shutout for the final minutes.
With a few more flawless minutes, the goalie pulled it off for only the fourth time as a Panther and the third time this season. It was the sort of performance Florida expected to get when it signed him to a seven-year, $70 million deal back in 2019 and why it still believes he can be a strength come the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, even after a first-round meltdown led to his benching just three games into the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The 2022 Cup playoffs are quickly becoming something tangible, too. Florida, which now has a seven-point lead on everyone else in the Atlantic Division and still sits atop the Eastern Conference, can officially clinch a playoff spot as early as Saturday. If Bobrovsky can give them more performances like the one he did Thursday, the Panthers might go into the playoffs as the Stanley Cup favorite.
“He gives us a chance to win every night and it wasn’t any different today,” Barkov said. “We trust him and we’re lucky to have him.”
In spite of this tumultuous month, Bobrovsky is tied for fourth in the NHL with 33 wins, tied for 16th with a .916 save percentage and sitting in 14th with a 2.61 goals against average. The advanced stats look even more positively upon Bobrovsky, who now ranks in the top five in the league in both goals saved above expected and high-danger save percentage.
With only 15 games left until the playoffs, Bobrovsky continues to play at a high level, even with a shaky performance here and there.
“Obviously,” Brunette said, “it’s very encouraging.”
The injury, which he sustained March 14 when an errant puck flew into Florida’s bench and hit Bobrovsky right beneath his nose, presented major complications throughout the rest of the month. He initially thought he’d be able to play through it, but the inflammation caused his face to swell up around his upper lip and nose, making it tough to see and breathe. He rode the bench behind rookie goaltender Spencer Knight for more than two weeks, trying to get fully healed for the stretch run of the regular season.
“It’s past, so it’s one of those things. There’s nothing you can do about it,” Bobrovsky said. “I look at it: It was a lucky shot. If it was a little inch lower or higher, it could be a lot more worse.”
In each of his first two starts back, Bobrovsky posted a save percentage worse than .870. On Thursday, he was finally back in his groove and Florida rode him to a lopsided win.
As he left his postgame press conference, Bobrovsky finally faced a question about Russia’s war with Ukraine for the first time. Although he also shut out the Ottawa Senators on March 3, this was the first time Bobrovsky spoke publicly since the invasion began last month and he insisted all he’s thinking about is hockey.
“I’m focusing on the game more,” he said. “We had a good performance tonight and I was preparing, and it’s a lot about the team. Big hockey’s coming up, so I’m really focused on that.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 9:38 PM.
