Confrontation between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers In the Stanley Cup final, even before the first match of the series, a lot of questions arose. Predicting its course and, accordingly, the outcome turned out to be not an easy task. Among the main intrigues of the battle for the main trophy of the National Hockey League season, the following topics were raised for discussion:
- whether Edmonton will continue its trend of impressive performance ?
- how will Florida tie the threes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisatl hand and foot?
- Who will emerge victorious in a duel between Sergei Bobrovsky and Stuart Skinner?
- Do the Panthers have the strength to put the same pressure on the Oilers as in previous playoff series?
For now, in reality, everything looks very prosaic. “Florida” refused to completely eliminate the opponent, as was the case in confrontations with “Tampa”, “Boston” and “Rangers”. Paul Maurice's men gave Edmonton the opportunity to control the puck and consider different options for approaching Sergei Bobrovsky's goal. The “Panthers” themselves, in the first match of the series, literally copied the style of play of the “Oilers” in the decisive match of their battle against “Dallas”, when the Oilers made only 10 shots on target in the entire game and achieved the necessary victory with a minimal score (2 :1). “Florida” also did not waste time on numerous attempts to break through the opposing goalkeeper, but focused on converting chances. Two accurate shots out of the first five on target were enough to achieve the desired result. Carter Verhaeghe opened the scoring in the fourth minute of the match, and Evan Rodriguez punished the Oilers for a blunder in defense in the opening of the second period. Eetu Luostarinen hit the empty net five seconds before the end of the match and made the score 3:0, when the outcome of the match was already a foregone conclusion.
However, it cannot be said that for “Florida” this victory was confident or convincing. The Panthers, although they gave the puck to Edmonton, allowed McDavid and company too much. And here Sergei Bobrovsky came to the fore.
The 35-year-old goalkeeper received a lot of attention in the run-up to the final. Perhaps now is Bob's last chance to win the Stanley Cup. If he becomes a champion, then, according to the authors of the NHL website, he will inevitably be among the main contenders for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame at the end of his career. Sergei has already taken a big step towards this greatness.
From the very opening of the match, Bobrovsky made it clear that he was even ready to tease the Edmonton stars and leave them empty-handed. The oil team's vaunted attack, led by Connor McDavid, tried time after time to beat the legendary Russian goalkeeper. And everything is useless, to no avail. Even McDavid personally, after many attempts to score a goal, subsequently simply gave up. “Bobrovsky is a wall” — Sergei heard as many such epithets today as, probably, throughout his entire career.
In total, Bobrovsky stopped 32 shots per game and recorded his third career shutout in the NHL playoffs. In the Stanley Cup games, the 35-year-old goalkeeper has already achieved his 42nd victory and is equal in this indicator to Evgeni Nabokov. Among Russian goalies, only Andrei Vasilevsky is higher (66 victories in the NHL playoffs, a record). Bobrovsky also achieved the first shutout victory in the Stanley Cup finals for Florida and set an all-time record in the history of the league — Sergei became the oldest goalkeeper who managed to start the Stanley Cup finals with a shutout. At the time of the match with Edmonton, Bob was 35 years and 262 days old. The previous record belonged to Patrick Roy (35 years and 233 days).
In North America, it seems, they have already gone through the entire English dictionary to express their admiration for the Russian’s performance. Moreover, journalists call Bobrovsky the main contender for the Conn Smythe Trophy. If Florida does become the champion, then the Russian goalie will be recognized as the most valuable player in the NHL playoffs (otherwise the award can be considered devalued).
The American press also jokes in its characteristic style:
“Someone check Bobrovsky for doping after the match,” wrote the authors of the NHL news channel.
Indeed, after such victories one can seriously think that Sergei is a superman. The legendary Russian goalkeeper is just three wins away from absolute greatness.
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