There once was a miracle on ice, and it had nothing to do with Disney. A century or so ago, the amateur Americans conspired to beat the almighty Russian Red Army team in the 1980 Olympic gold medal hockey game. The miraculous happened at Lake Placid in Upstate NY, at the height of the Cold War no less.
Recently, there´s been another miracle (not quite as monumental as the first, mind you) called The Bobbery: the ridiculous save that goalie Sergei Bobrovsky pulled out of the hat, with his back turned to the puck, to help the Florida Panthers tame Tampa Bay. Now he looks to do the same to the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals starting Saturday.
The Bobbery: Will He Blanket the Oilers?
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It´s cool for most Americans to make things simpler, especially tricky Russian goalie names. (I´ll try my best to refrain from getting into the geopolitical mayhem and tragic war unleashed by Russia on Ukraine.) Suffice to say that the current Florida Panthers netminder can be called Sergei or Bob or The Bobbery: you choose. But if Edmonton doesn´t find a way to sneak four pucks per game past Florida´s No. 72, they´re in for big trouble, and a short series.
It´s a basic calc. When The Bobbery gives up four goals or more in a game, his record with the Panthers in this season´s playoffs is a sorry 0-3. On the other hand, if Bob bars the goal as usual and yields three strikes or fewer, the Panthers are 12-2. Against the high-flying Oilers, featuring triggermen Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, it´s the same deal. Big Bob’s 10-1 when allowing three goals or fewer. On the flip side, he went 1-5 versus the Oilers when they twitched the twine four times or more.
If this final series comes down to the confidence of his teammates, The Bobbery will be drinking bubbly later in June.
“He’s the hardest-working guy I’ve ever seen. You just know, when a guy works that hard, he’s also like super calm. Every single day at practice, he’s having fun. Morning skate, he’s having fun. Warmups, all that kind of stuff, you see him being in the zone. You just know he’s going to be on top of his game. He’s been unbelievable. He’s 35—it’s really hard to believe. He’s been amazing, and it’s fun to watch from this close,” Aleksander Barkov, the Florida captain, enthused right after the East final.
Bobrovsky Isn´t The Weirdest of Goalies
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Hockey goalies have always been a very weird breed. Of course, anybody who gets a kick out of being hit by a rock-hard rubber disk that goes upwards of 100 miles per hour doesn´t mind being called weird. Sure enough, The Bobbery has a few eccentricities. He doesn´t like talking about himself, and he refuses to get a single lock of hair cut during the season. On the other hand, different from most goalies, he allows teammates to shoot high in practice and warmups (thus disrupting one of hockey´s unwritten rules).
So, what do Brobovsky´s skating mates think of all his quirks? “That’s kind of the beautiful thing about Bob. Every day, he’s not thinking about if he’s a superstar, or he’s not thinking about what everyone else is thinking about him. He’s just going out to practice daily, kind of just doing his own thing. And he wants to be a great goalie. He wants to be the best in the world. He comes every day with that mindset, and it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks of him,” left winger Carter Verhaeghe claims.
Where Do All These Russian Goalies Come From?
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Good question. They clearly come from Russia. But why are there so many of them succeeding at such a lofty level (namely the NHL)? It all started with a monstrous netminder named Vladislav Tretiak who retired while still at the peak of his goalkeeping powers at age 32 in 1984. Legend has it that he showed ´The Great One,´ Wayne Gretzky, a goalie drill where he´d squat and kick out each leg in turn. Supposedly, the inspiration came from a vibrant Cossack dance troupe. But that wasn´t all: Tretiak added juggling tennis balls to the snappy routine.
Now, The Bobbery is on the brink of winning the Vezina Trophy as the best NHL goalie for the third time. He was the first Russian to achieve such an honor in 2012-13. The Tampa Bay Lightning´s Andrei Vasilevskiy is surely no slouch either. And then there´s the rapidly-arriving duo, Ilya Sorokin and Igor Shesterkin, both starters and first- time All-Stars, suiting up for the NY Islanders and Rangers respectively.
Imagine that the seven-year, $70-million deal Bob snagged from the Panthers in 2019 didn´t always look so sweet. But now the biggest of all prizes is in reach. “The job is not done,” The Bobbery remarked after making the Cup final once again, following last year’s five-game loss to the Las Vegas Golden Knights. “We made just a step. It’s a good challenge in front of us, and we’re excited for it.”
While it´s nowhere near a war, let the puck battle between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers begin, posthaste.
Get More Great Content:
Veteran writer Will Beebe once tried to shut down Carolina´s all-time leading scorer (and former Hartford Whaler) Ronnie Francis in a friendly puck game. Beebe also recently learned one of his best childhood friends Rex piloted the Florida Panthers´ Zamboni in his free time!
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