Florida Panther's Stanley Cup Finals Success is All About Sergei Bobrovsky

Welcome to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final: All About Bob edition.

There are myriad reasons the Florida Panthers are one win away from claiming the first title in franchise history and looking to sweep the Edmonton Oilers when the puck drops for Game 4 on Saturday.

Looming largest is Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Although the Oilers are on the verge of seeing their glorious run come to an inauspicious end, the difference between the two clubs has been Bobrovsky. 

Over the course of the first three games, Florida has been the better team, but the Oilers have had plenty of opportunities to turn things in their favor. However, those glimmers of hope have been consistently dashed at the goal.

In Game 1, Bobrovsky delivered a sparkling 32-save shutout in a game moneypuck.com's Deserve To Win O’Meter said the Oilers would win 86 percent of the time with their performance. It was only the beginning.

The Panthers were much better in the second clash and earned their victory, but Thursday’s 4-3 Florida win featured more Bobrovsky heroics.

When the score was tied 1-1 nearing the midway point of the second period, two of Edmonton’s most potent offensive stars, Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid, had 10-bell chances within seconds of each other but were denied. Moments later, a miscue by Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner led to Vladimir Tarasenko’s go-ahead goal, from which the Panthers built their 4-1 lead.

Fast forward to the third period, and a pair of Edmonton tallies made it a one-goal game with five minutes remaining, and Bobrovsky slammed the door on Ryan McLeod’s golden chance to tie the clash.

“The best chance that Edmonton had didn’t go in, and that’s Sergei Bobrovsky. You have that faith in the net," said coach Paul Maurice.

Using all the metrics you can find, the Oilers could have won a couple of games in this series. However, their defensive-zone gaffes are seemingly all ending up in the net, while Bobrovsky has regularly quashed any chances and kept Edmonton’s big guns silent.

Hyman scored 54 goals in the regular season and 14 in the first three rounds, yet to light a lamp. Leon Draisaitl, a 41-goal scorer in the regular season with 10 more in the playoffs, has been held without a point. McDavid, arguably the best offensive force in the league, has 14 shots on net with no goals.

Edmonton’s historically great power play, which racked up 19 goals in the first three rounds (19 for 51), has been snuffed on all 10 opportunities in this series.

Because of Bobrovsky, the Panthers have faith and the Oilers only have hope, which appears to be only false hope, with a Herculean task before them.

Of the previous 28 finals in which a team held a 3-0 lead, 20 ended in a sweep. Only once has a team in that deep of a hole recovered to win: the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings.

Can the Oilers become only the second team in NHL history to cue up a finals comeback? They are vowing to do all they can to add their name to the pages of history.

“There’s frustration that we’re down, but there’s a difference between frustration and quitting,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “There’s absolutely no quit. There’s belief that we can do this.”

Expect Bobrovsky and the Panthers to prove otherwise.