All About ‘Bob’

from the NHL's website, Sergei Bobrovsky is a two-time winner of the Vezina Trophy, voted as the best goalie in the NHL, and has helped the Florida Panthers reach the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight season. He's the winningest goalie all-time among players born in Russia with 396, and he's four victories away from becoming the 14th NHL goalie with 400. About the only thing the 35-year-old hasn't won in his 14 seasons is the Stanley Cup, and to get there he's having to go through the person who gave him his start in the NHL, New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, in the Eastern Conference Final. The Panthers lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 with Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC). Long before he became one of the top goalies in the NHL, Bobrovsky was a 22-year-old rookie with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010-11, hoping to play for Laviolette, then in his second season as Flyers coach. Philadelphia had signed the undrafted Bobrovsky on May 6, 2010, a move that was overshadowed the following day by the beginning of the Flyers' historic comeback from being down 3-0 against the Boston Bruins to win the Eastern Confernence Semifinals in seven games. The unheralded goalie arrived in Philadelphia ahead of training camp in 2010, and it didn't take long for him to make an impression. "First met him in a skate with [goalie coach] Jeff Reese in probably the latter half of August," said Brian Boucher, a Flyers goalie at the time and now a hockey analyst for TNT and the Flyers. "I remember I turned to Jeff Reese after about 20 minutes and I said, 'Uh-oh, I'm in trouble.' "My first impression was this kid was a stud and I'd yet to see anybody move like that and have the flexibility and agility, all that good stuff. Maybe the only thing he lacked, and still lacks, is probably that killer size (6-foot-2, 188 pounds). He's not the size of (Tampa Bay Lightning Andrei) Vasilevskiy (6-4, 220), but as far as pure athleticism and skating ability, agility, it was the best I'd ever been on the ice with at one time." continued