Conn Smythe Bob?

There's a saying in hockey that goes "Show me a good coach and I'll show you a great goaltender". Two of the three Coach of the Year nominees last season had Vezina-nominated goaltenders playing for them. The one who didn't was Andrew Brunette in Florida where Sergei Bobrovsky was one of a handful of goalies who played for the Panthers last season. His middling numbers didn't really make anyone believe that he was the reason that Brunette had been nominated, so maybe Brunette really was the best coach last season in spite of his goalies rather than because of them. However, Brunette is now in New Jersey, Paul Maurice is behind the Florida bench, and Bobrovsky may just be your playoff MVP at this point. It's funny how things change!

I'm not here to disparage Sergei Bobrovsky in any way. There were many who called for him to be bought out of his contract with the emergence of Spencer Knight, but the Panthers refused to make that move. They started Alex Lyon in the playoffs who did well enough against the Boston Bruins for people to wonder if the Panthers had found another gem in the crease, but it was Bobrovsky who picked up the slack when Lyon appeared to have faltered.

Should we be surprised that Bobrovsky has this kind of game in him? My thought is no as he's a two-time Vezina Trophy winner. He's a very capable goaltender, and has shown throughout his career that he can make stops on the biggest of stages. Since 2010, Bobrovsky has played in 50-or-more games nine times for his teams. In those nine seasons, he's had a save percentage below .913 just twice - 2019-20 with Florida and 2022-23 with Florida. Being that he's 34 years-old, one might think age could be a factor, but those two seasons were also his two highest GAA seasons in his career. Might team defence play a role in those numbers? Hint: yes.

Beyond that, we know that teams that win in the playoffs show good defensive hockey regularly as well, yet it took Bobrovsky 58 starts and 64 playoff appearances to record his first playoff shutout tonight. If defence wins championships, those two numbers shouldn't be as high as they are, but congratulations to Sergei Bobrovsky for crossing another career highlight off his hockey bucket list. That shutout now has him and the Panthers one game away from the Stanley Cup Final.

"We have so much confidence with him back there," Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe told reporters following the game tonight. "It seems like every day he's making another huge save, changing momentum and helping our team win games. He's so important, he's so calm. He's our backbone and our best player."

For a guy who is tied as the tenth-highest earning player in the NHL based on annual contract value, you kind of expect that description - "backbone" and "best player" - to be attributed to him. Sergei Bobrovsky needs to be one of the stars for the Panthers, but he also can't do it all by himself. Head coach Paul Maurice made a point to highlight that in his postgame press conference, stating, "... at no point would we say 'hey, nobody has to come back into our end, Bob has got it.' We have to."

That's where the Panthers have stepped up as we saw them throw their bodies in front of pucks in the third period whenever the Hurricanes looked to put a shot on net. That sacrifice for the better of the team has been paying off for the Panthers as Carolina's strategy of generating offence from their defence has either been stopped, deflected away from the net, or forced the Hurricanes defenders to angle their shots away from the front of the net. As a result, Bobrovsky's been facing less deflections and more shots from further out thanks to the Panthers clearing the front of the net and getting out to the point to block shots.

Both Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin led all Hurricanes with five shots each in Game Three while the Hurricanes won the shot attempts statistic by a 61-22 margin. Where the rub comes in is that the shot totals showed a 32-17 edge for Carolina despite them carrying the play for the vast majority of the game. With 47.5% of Carolina's shot attempts not getting to the net, Sergei Bobrovsky got a ton of help tonight. Combine that with his exceptional play, and one can quickly see why it looks like Bobrovsky has found a level in his game not seen since arriving in Sunrise.

You can't give eight guys the Conn Smythe Trophy, though, and the man making the stops has looked otherworldly since taking over the crease twelve games ago. It seems almost too obvious that as Sergei Bobrovsky goes, so do the Florida Panthers. The only problem is that they don't hand out the Conn Smythe Trophy after Game Three in the Eastern Conference Final, so he and his teammates will need to win one more game against Carolina before the actual Conn Smythe Trophy conversations can start.

It's hard not to include him in the initial chatter, though. Bobrovsky has been stellar since reclaiming the starter's role for the Panthers, and he might be the very reason that south Florida gets its first-ever Stanley Cup parade.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!