Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Still Can’t Figure Out How to Beat ‘Bob’

Published

1 year ago

January 6, 2023

Sergei Bobrovsky should pay property tax on the Detroit Red Wings because he owns them.

The Russian goaltender made 29 saves to spark the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 win against the Red Wings and raise his career record to 23-6-1 against Detroit. He has beaten Detroit six consecutive times and in 10 of his 11 starts. Bobrovsky has given up two or fewer goals in all 11 of those appearances.

“I give Bobrovsky a ton of credit,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “He stole the game. He was the first star, second star, third star.”

Bobrovsky’s dominance over Detroit began when he played for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Coming into the game, Bobrovsky’s career goals-against average was 1.86 against Detroit. His save percentage was .937.

“(Bobrovsky) made the unbelievable saves on the Grade A’s, the breakaways, the all alone in front, the back door
tap-ins, the one-timers from 15 feet out,” Lalonde said. “But on the easy offense we were way too easy on him. We had shots from the point, we didn’t take his eyes. We didn’t get enough rebounds. We get a tip goal early in the game, sometimes that can be rattling for a goalie, and we had an awful lot of puck possession in the first and we generated six shots.”

Late Push

The Red Wings made a bid to rally when Robby Fabbri scored with 3:43 left in regulation The Red Wings had pulled their goalie. Fabbri was playing his second game since coming back for his third surgery. Before Wednesday, he hadn’t played in almost 10 months.

The Panthers, last season’s President’s Trophy winner, have struggled this season. However this win gave them 40 points and pushed them one point ahead of Detroit in the Eastern Conference wild card race. The Panthers are still six points out of the final spot. Plus, the Red Wings have three games in hand.

The Red Wings looked as if they solved Bobrovsky early in the first period. Jonatan Berggren’s deflection soared high past Bobrovsky on Detroit’s first shot of the game at 1:04 of the first period.

I'm so conflicted on this Panthers/Red Wings game. Both models say Detroit is the play but Florida falls into a very efficient system and Bobrovsky (unconfirmed) has been REMARKABLY GOOD vs Detroit, particularly as of late. His one loss to them since joining FLA he only let in 2! pic.twitter.com/aOsmrTnwZT

— Toque Nukem 🪵🪓 (@ToqueNukem) January 6, 2023

Less than 90 seconds later, Gustav Forsling scored on the Panthers’ first shot against Ville Husso to tie the game 1-1. Former Detroit player Givani Smith assisted on the goal.

Husso has only won once in his past eight games, dating to Dec. 10.

Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad added a goal in both the second and third periods against Husso .With this win, the Panthers are only 3-5-0 in their last eight games.