When one is a goaltender in the Philadelphia Flyers’ organization, the future is always unpredictable given that the franchise has been a goaltender carousel for well over a decade.
Columbus Blue Jackets netminder Sergei Bobrovsky experienced that first hand in his first two seasons in the NHL, which came with the Flyers from 2010 to 2012. In his two seasons in the City of Brotherly Love, Bobrovsky, 24, played alongside the likes of Brian Boucher, Michael Leighton, and Ilya Bryzgalov.
Bobrovsky, who played in 83 regular season games and seven post-season contests with the Flyers, was certainly not bad during his time in Philadelphia. With that said, Bryzgalov’s long and lucrative contract made it easy for the Flyers to move Bobrovsky elsewhere.
The team did just that this past off-season and moved Bobrovsky to the Blue Jackets for three draft picks. For the Blue Jackets, this trade made a lot of sense because of Steve Mason’s inconsistency between the pipes.
With Bobrovsky coming in, the Blue Jackets were hoping that he could put some pressure on Mason to be better and to also promote healthy competition for playing time. Close to two months into the shortened season, and it looks like Bobrovsky has earned the Blue Jackets’ net for the long haul.
In 18 games this season, Bobrovsky is 8-6-4 with a 2.19 goals-against average (eighth in the league), a .923 save percentage (eighth in the league) and one shutout. For someone playing behind a somewhat suspect defence and for a team that does not exactly light up the scoreboard, those are pretty darn good numbers.
Bobrovsky has especially been good the past two weeks. In that span, Bobrovsky helped the team go on a five-game winning streak, allowed just four goals, picked up his first career shutout against the Detroit Red Wings and stopped 124 of 128 shots, despite his team scoring just 13 goals in that time period.
For his efforts, Bobrovsky was named the NHL’s first star of the week last week. Bobrovsky’s strong play has also gotten the Blue Jackets to within three points of the eighth spot in the powerful Western Conference.
Ian Clark, the Blue Jackets’ goaltending coach, spoke with Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch about how Bobrovsky has gotten better as a netminder.
“There are some areas of his game that we’ve worked real hard on,” Clark said. “One is getting bigger in traffic, getting that butterfly (stance) higher, covering a higher area. An area of his game that has been a little bit chronic for him is getting shrunken down in his position. … He’s playing a calmer game now, and as you get some starts back-to-back-to-back, you get into a rhythm.”
As a goaltender, changing something in one’s game is never an easy thing to do. Goaltenders are usually creatures of habit and prefer doing things their own way.
This season, however, Bobrovsky has shown a lot of maturity by being willing to tune up his game and change some of his style of play. Clark, for one, has certainly admired Bobrovsky’s willingness to try new things in order to become a better NHL goaltender.
“It’s a risky thing to change up their games without the practice reps that a normal season will give you,” Clark said. “I’m real proud of him for embracing that adjustment.”
At just 24 years of age and in only his third NHL season, the potential is high when it comes to Bobrovsky’s play between the pipes. Hopefully for the Blue Jackets, it will one day lead to their second post-season berth and a shot at Lord Stanley.
