What a difference a year makes, eh?
Sergei Bobrovsky's stock was not very high at this time last year.
He was injured (a few times) and his lackluster performance early in the season played a big role in the dismissal of Todd Richards. He couldn't stop anything as the Blue Jackets sunk to 0-7 out of the gate, leading to the hiring of John Tortorella and a respectable bounce-back in the second half of the season. Going into the fall, the focus for Bobrovsky was staying healthy and getting into action early; the club hired High Performance Consultant Nelson Ayotte to help Bobrovsky sort through chronic groin issues, and he was Russia's No. 1 goaltender for the World Cup of Hockey.
In short order, he got his health under control and was dominant for Russia at the World Cup, which seemed to catalyze him for the NHL season.
What did we expect?
A lot, and rightfully so.
It would've been hard for Bobrovsky to be as poor as he was the year prior, but when you're making upwards of $7 million annually, the expectations are going to be high regardless of what happened. The Blue Jackets live and die with this guy, and when he's going, they're going. His lights-out play at the World Cup made everyone breathe a little easier going into the season and he was convincingly a different player once the puck dropped.
What did we get?
Bobrovsky won 41 games (a career record and new franchise record) en route to a 108-point season for the club. That's damn good.
His postseason performance won't be forgotten anytime soon, but when post a .930-plus save percentage in the regular season and keep your goals-against average right around two per game, you're going to help your team win more games than it loses over the course of an 82-game campaign. The Blue Jackets were a better offensive team this season - in large part due to a mobile defense - but the backbone was Bobrovsky once again. When they were scoring, he was there, and when they weren't, he was there too. They had a safety valve in net and it shouldn't be a surprise they won 50 regular season games because of it.
| GP | GS | W | L | OT | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REGULAR SEASON | 63 | 63 | 41 | 17 | 5 | 1,854 | 127 | 2.06 | .931 | |||||
| PLAYOFFS | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 170 | 20 | 3.88 | .882 |
Memorable Moment
When you make as many saves as Bobrovsky did this season, it's tough to pick one. But, we'll do it anyway.
In late February, the Blue Jackets were locked in a 0-0 battle with the Montreal Canadiens and it appeared Montreal would be first to break through. With four minutes left in regulation, Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty had a golden scoring chance but Bobrovsky lunged across to deny him:
Contract Status
According to CapFriendly.com, Bobrovsky has two seasons left on a four-year contract that pays him $7.425 million annually against the cap. The deal expires at the end of the 2018-19 season.
| GRADE | A |
