Goalie drama is at the center of another Panthers postseason and Florida can’t afford it
Paul Maurice waited until just about the last possible moment to name a starting goaltender for the Florida Panthers’ must-win Game 5 with the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, holding his choice close to the vest until he chose to have Sergei Bobrovsky lead the Panthers onto the ice or warm-ups at TD Garden.
The lack of clarity on who would start, he argued, was actually a good thing for Florida and he’s partly right: A run like the one Alex Lyon was on at the end of the regular season, suddenly going from a career in American Hockey League to the centerpiece of an unlikely postseason push, gave the Panthers an improbable starting-caliber goalie. The problem is Bobrovsky, making $10 million a year for the next three seasons, is supposed to be Florida’s no-doubt starter, especially with his Panthers down 3-1 in a best-of-7 series.
“The challenge with it is they’ve both played a similar game,” the coach said Tuesday. “They’ve both played very, very well; they’ve probably each got one they’d like to have back; they’ve both made big saves and maybe — and this is a positive challenge — I’ve got complete confidence in either one of them playing.”
Florida has now been to the Stanley Cup playoffs four times since Bobrovsky signed a seven-year, $70 million deal with the Panthers in 2019 and goaltending drama has now been in the middle of half of those Cup playoffs.
Lyon started the series in net, making 11 straight starts after he took over for Bobrovsky when the star goaltender got sick last month. Bobrovsky replaced him in the third period of Game 3 on Friday in Sunrise and then made just 25 saves on 30 shots in his first start of the postseason in Game 4 on Sunday.
“I felt good, I felt comfortable, I felt strong,” Bobrovsky said Sunday.
Neither has been spectacular in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs — Lyon had a .902 save percentage in his first three starts and Bobrovsky an .846 save percentage in his fist two appearances — and it’s a problem for Florida considering what the plan was when it made Bobrovsky the highest-paid goalie in the NHL four years ago.
Since then, the 34-year-old Russian has a .904 save percentage in 185 regular-season games and an .895 save percentage in 19 playoff games, entering Wednesday.
In the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, Bobrovsky posted a pedestrian .902 save percentage and the Panthers were out in just four games in the qualifying round — an extra round, added because the COVID-19 pandemic shortened the regular season. In the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, Bobrovsky had an abysmal .841 save percentage and Florida wound up using three different goaltenders, ultimately settling on Spencer Knight, who was only 21 and didn’t technically become a rookie until the 2020-21 NHL season.
The Panthers went with Lyon to start these playoffs after he posted a .943 save percentage in the final eight games of the regular season, which was understandable. A little more than a week later, the 30-year-old goalie has come back to earth a bit, and it still wasn’t entirely obviously Bobrovsky, who won two Vezina Trophies with the Blue Jackets last decade, should get the the starting nod for Game 5.
“Alex was so good down the stretch and played really well in Boston, and had one in each game that he probably didn’t like. The other guy’s won a Vezina,” Maurice said. “We’ve got two really good goaltenders, and the decision will be mine.”
Next year, Florida won’t have this same luxury. With Bobrovsky making $10 million and Knight’s annual salary about to bump up to $4.5 million, Lyon will almost certainly be playing elsewhere next year, and the Panthers will need Bobrovsky and Knight, at their combined salary, to give Florida some of the best goaltending in the league.
Bobrovsky has to be better. Knight, who’s currently out for personal reasons and in the NHL’s player assistance program, needs to live up to his potential.
The Panthers are paying their goalies to be elite and, for the fourth straight year, their season is close to ending because their opponents’ goalies are playing better.
More Panthers game-time decisions
It wasn’t just the goalie decision: Maurice held off on making any lineup announcements until as close to game time as possible.
On Tuesday, he said star defenseman Aaron Ekblad and right wing Anthony Duclair were “good to go” for Game 5, but center Sam Bennett and left wing Ryan Lomberg didn’t participate in practice at FLA Live Arena, leaving their availability in question.
Ultimately, Bennett suited up and centered the second line next to superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk, while Lomberg sat out, replaced in the lineup by forward Zac Dalpe.
For the Bruins, three-time All-Star center Patrice Bergeron made his first appearance of this postseason after missing the first four games of Round 1 with an illness and injury.
This story was originally published April 26, 2023 at 12:38 PM.
