Bobrovsky's 'sense of calm' soothing to Panthers in Stanley Cup Final

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Vitek Vanecek doesn’t want to bother Sergei Bobrovsky.

He figures this summer will be soon enough.

Vanecek arrived in South Florida on March 5, two days ahead of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline and four days after the Florida Panthers sent their previous backup goalie, Spencer Knight, to the Chicago Blackhawks in the deal that brought them defenseman Seth Jones.

Over those three months, Vanecek has watched Panthers No. 1 goalie Sergei Bobrovsky closely, has studied what makes him tick, the ways in which he takes his role seriously -- so seriously -- and the way that impacts the rest of the team around him.

But perhaps what has impressed Vanecek most is the silence.

“On the ice, you can see how quiet in the net he is. He’s not panicking,” Vanecek said. “That’s the thing, I would love to work on it. I know I can play hockey, it’s just the head -- be more quiet on the ice, not panicking, not reaching, he’s not doing that. He knows he’s going to get there on time if there’s a rebound. So that’s impacting for me to see it and learn that, for sure.”

When he watches Bobrovsky, which he has gotten to do throughout a Stanley Cup Playoffs in which Bobrovsky has started every game and played every single minute, if he did not know the score already, he would not be able to determine it solely from Bobrovsky's demeanor.

“It doesn’t matter,” Vanecek said. “Doesn’t matter. That’s what I like. His head is quiet, doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you’re going to move on and you know next game, you’re going to be better. That’s how he is. That’s awesome.”

That was the best way to describe Bobrovsky on Monday, in Game 3 of a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final that the Panthers now lead 2-1 against the Edmonton Oilers, with Game 4 to be played at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC). Amidst all the fireworks, all the punches thrown and goals scored, all the penalties taken and hits delivered, Bobrovsky was quietly there. Sometimes steady, sometimes spectacular, he was everything he needed to be.

"That's what we've come to know from him,” Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “He's all over the place, making insane saves, and then there's a sense of calm in his game where he's only challenging on what he needs to. It’s impressive to watch and it's really fun to play in front of him.”

It is what Bobrovsky has been, again and again, through the past two runs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Panthers, rewriting the narrative that had settled in early in his days in South Florida, quietly entering himself into the record books and, likely, the Hockey Hall of Fame.

"If I thought I could take some credit for it, I'd feel really good about it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “But what it is ... it's kind of a faith-builder when you look at people that do all the right things and put so much focus and attention into being great, into … the arduous pursuit of excellence without the guarantee of reward. He never wavered.

“From the start of training camp, he just did his thing and he worked hard at it. I'm sure there were times where he had to believe in himself very deeply to stay the course. And it was also a great payoff for him for all that work, just from a personal level.”

In each of the first two games of the series -- each of which went to extra time -- Bobrovsky made 42 saves on 46 shots. The Panthers lost the first, 4-3 in overtime, but won the second, 5-4 in double overtime.

Then, in Game 3, he allowed only a single goal, to forward Corey Perry, while making 32 saves on 33 shots in a 6-1 victory. He has a 2.15 goals-against average, .916 save percentage and three shutouts in 20 starts this postseason; in 114 career playoff games, he has a 2.72 GAA, .907 save percentage and six shutouts. He has now made 116 saves through three games of the series, tied for second most in the first three games of a Final; Tuukka Rask had 120 for the Boston Bruins in 2013 and Olie Kolzig had 116 for the Washington Capitals in 1998.

Over the past three seasons, Bobrovsky has played in 63 playoff games, more than any other goalie; Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars is second with 56.

It would have been more but, back in 2023, in the series that started it all for Florida, in the series that could have changed everything, the Eastern Conference First Round against the Bruins that saw the Panthers upset the best regular-season team in NHL history, Bobrovsky did not get the start until Game 4, until Florida was down 2-1 in the series, after the Panthers started the series with Alex Lyon in net.

Bobrovsky brought them back. He brought them here.

“That was kind of the turning point for us, for the whole organization pretty much,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We just learned a lot that season. We learned a lot about ourselves and how to play the game the right way, the way we want to play. That series against Boston, we just learned so much that it still helps us to this day."

Bobrovsky, now, is approaching 37, the second-oldest player to Brad Marchand on the Panthers. And yet, he seems ageless. It seems like as long as Florida is a contender -- and it appears to be set up well to contend in the Eastern Conference, if not for the Stanley Cup, for the foreseeable future -- Bobrovsky will be there, though the seven-year contract he signed on July 1, 2019, ends after next season.

Part of that is the way he prepares, the complete and total commitment to his training and his body, to optimize his play and his health.

"It's been well chronicled, it's been spoken about and documented," Panthers general manager Bill Zito said, "his preparation, his attention to detail and his consistency, the way he comports himself every single day, preparing for practice, in practice, pregame, in the games, postgame. There's a reason that he's been able to sustain that high level of play. That's the answer.

"It's not a secret. He's a pro. He's a pro's pro and somebody that everybody can tell you, you want to know why a guy is successful, it's because of the way he prepares and does his job."

It's something that reminds Barkov of Jaromir Jagr, who played 24 seasons in the NHL and whose 1,921 points are second in League history behind Wayne Gretzky.

"Honestly, they're very similar in that way where they have their own plan for themselves and they know exactly what to do,” Barkov said. “When you're around those types of guys like Jagr and Bobrovsky, which I have been lucky to do, you learn so much from them just from watching them. You don't have to do the same thing he does, but it makes you think more like, 'What's going to make me feel better that I can do as well?' You just learn a lot from them."

Which is, again, what Vanecek intends to do.

Once it’s all over, that’s when Vanecek will approach Bobrovsky, that’s when he’ll start to ask his questions, to find out how he manages to keep himself so quiet, so contained, to not betray his emotions on the ice.

He will ask for all of his secrets.

“Probably after the playoffs I’m going to ask him,” Vanecek said. “I don’t want to bother him right now to ask him about that. I was thinking about it, but I said, 'When we win the Cup, I can come to him.'”

NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price and NHL.com Senior Writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report.