SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The loudest cheers amongst Florida Panthers followers at Amerant Financial institution Area are all the time for Sergei Bobrovsky.
Pregame warmups. Jumbotron appearances. Every save. Florida followers know the way essential the veteran goaltender is to their workforce.
So do the Panthers.
It’s why Florida by no means appeared rattled throughout its third straight Stanley Cup Last run. The defending champion Panthers remained even-keeled, by no means wanting too far forward, and positively not harping on the previous — mirroring the perspective of their unflappable, two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender.
And Bobrovsky has rewarded their belief in him with an excellent displaying on this 12 months’s playoffs, which he stamped with a 28-save effort Tuesday in Florida’s 5-1 romp over the Edmonton Oilers in Sport 6 to win their second straight title.
He stopped 192 of 209 photographs on purpose within the remaining and allowed 17 objectives. He practically had his fourth shutout of the postseason earlier than Vasily Podkolzin broke up that bid with the Oilers’ solely purpose Tuesday with simply 4:39 left.
With Tuesday’s win, Bobrovsky moved to 13-8 in 22 series-clinching video games in his profession, tying Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (13-9) for essentially the most amongst lively goaltenders.
He was much more dominant than final 12 months’s title run, when he was once more a key piece in Florida’s success with a .906 save proportion.
Ask Florida’s veteran goaltender what he thinks of his success and he’ll seemingly sum it up in just a few phrases. He’ll specific his gratitude and speak about how nice it’s to play the sport he loves. Then he’ll deflect the eye to his teammates.
That’s who he’s been since he took the beginning job three video games into the primary spherical in 2023 and what the Panthers have come to understand about him. He’s been the calming presence of their locker room amid every kind of chaos throughout this dominant three-year run.
His focus is all the time on what it takes to win and his credit score all the time goes to those round him.
That easy method has labored for him.
Going again to the 2023 playoffs, no goalie has extra wins, saves or shutouts than Bobrovsky. He’s the second-oldest goaltender within the final decade with a playoff shutout.
Coming into Tuesday, solely three different goalies since 1981-82 had gained the Vezina Trophy twice and hoisted the Stanley Cup trophy a number of instances.
Bobrovsky joined that group on Tuesday.
The others?
They’re all Corridor of Famers.
