The Florida Panthers’ decision to make a goaltending switch in the middle of their first-round series with the Boston Bruins has had mixed results.
The Panthers started Alex Lyon for the first three games of the series, but decided to make the switch to Sergei Bobrovsky after falling behind in the series 2-1. Bobrovsky’s Game 4 start saw Florida fall even further behind in the series, but a superb performance in Game 5 was enough to keep its season alive and leave no question as to who Panthers head coach Paul Maurice plans to play in Game 6.
This is Bobrovsky’s series to lose.
How can the Bruins ensure he does exactly that? Well, there’s no one more qualified to answer that question than Nick Foligno, who played with Bobrovsky while the two were members of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2012-2019.
“It’s a guy that I know very well,” Foligno said Thursday, per team-provided video. “I’ve obviously seen him be a great goaltender in this league, but have seen in practice there are areas where you can sneak a few in on him. He’s a great goalie, but a lot of the time with great goalies it’s not about a secret recipe. It’s about pressure, it’s traffic, it’s pucks on him at all times.
“You’ve got to try and tire him out. It’s what they’re trying to do to our goaltenders, who are great goaltenders. There’s no secret recipe. (Bruins goaltending coach Bob Essensa) is the guy that really breaks it down, but for a guy like (Bobrovsky) we’re just going to have to get around him more and make it harder on him. I think you saw that in Game 4. That’s the kind of tenacity that we had that allowed us to get a lot of goals against him.”
Foligno’s reference to Game 4 is a strong one, as the Bruins registered six goals in the contest and saw nearly all of them converted with multiple bodies in front of the net. In Game 5, the level of success wasn’t the same, but the type of success was. It was all about capitalizing on second-chance opportunities, which helped the Bruins make three separate comebacks before running out of time.
Boston head coach Jim Montgomery has mentioned the fact that his team had tended to be more focused when on the road, which should help them remember how their success has been generated in this series. They might even look to do so with a new goalie of their own.
The Bruins will have another opportunity to close things out against the Panthers at FLA Live Arena on Friday night, with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m. ET on NESN.
