Sergei Bobrovsky not sure if he will play for the Florida Panthers in the first season against the Chicago Blackhawks at the BB&T Center on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, TVAS, SN, FS-F, NBCSCH, NHL.TV).
The goalkeeper, who skated for the first time at training camp on Wednesday, has not been fit to practice since starting the field, coach Joel Quenneville said.
“It’s definitely great to be back with the guys to get to work, watch the record and be with my teammates,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s great to be back and I felt good, so I just need a few more practices and I’m ready to get started.”
Bobrovsky said he will skate Thursday, but the Panthers are not expected to have another full team session until Friday. They will practice on Saturday before playing on Sunday.
Florida had planned to start the season with consecutive home games against the Dallas Stars on Thursday and Friday, but they were postponed due to COVID-19 problems related to the Stars.
“It’s good to be back again,” Quenneville said of Bobrovsky. “He felt good out there. He did a lot of exercises, he did almost all the shots at the end. So he had a good work day. We’ll see how he comes in tomorrow and presents, and we’ll talk to our group goalkeeper. I think we have a opportunity here. It will dictate to us over the next few days whether Sunday is an option or not. “
If Bobrovsky doesn’t play, Chris Driedger or Sam Montembeault it will probably start. Driedger went 7-2-1 with an average of 2.05 goals against, a savings percentage of 0.938 and a close in 12 games (11 starts) last season. Montembeault has been 5-5-1 with a 3.34 GAA percentage and a 0.890 savings percentage in 14 games (nine starts).
Bobrovsky said he has limited himself to light stretch workouts last week and a half. He spent about two hours on the ice Wednesday.
“It’s important to feel the net, to feel the ice, to feel the gear in the body, to see the drive, to see the traffic,” Bobrovsky said. “It was a fantastic practice. I saw straight shots, 3 on 2 in things in the area, all kinds of different activity in front of me. It was fantastic. I also worked a little bit more on the basics. It was a great practice. for me “.
Bobrovsky wants to recover after last season, the first with the Panthers after signing a seven-year contract on July 1, 2019. He had a 23-19-6 with a savings rate of 3.23 GAA and a percentage of 0.900 in 50 games (49 starts)).
He was the highest GAA percentage and the lowest percentage of savings he has had in any of his nine NHL seasons in which he played at least 30 games.
“‘Bob’ had a really good season,” Quenneville said. “I know that last year, expectations, a lot of things were high, and when you evaluate Bob’s contribution or season, I thought it suited well what needs to be addressed or worked on. I think he did a good job of getting himself to the right place mentally, physically.
“There’s a small setback here, but I think he’s more than excited to start the season and do what he has to do. He’s tackled it the right way and I think he’s balanced expectations with how he should play in the “Being a teammate is a solid teammate and a great contributor to team success. Let’s imagine you’re part of it.”