Sergei Bobrovsky shines vs former team as Florida Panthers beat Columbus Blue Jackets

He had 10 days to prepare. To get back to basics. To get a needed reset after a slow start to the season.

And on Saturday, after two games on the bench, Sergei Bobrovsky returned to the net and put together one of his most complete games for the Florida Panthers.

The opponent in his 4-1 win at the BB&T Center was a fitting one, too: The Columbus Blue Jackets, his team for seven seasons before joining the Panthers this offseason and where he won the Vezina Trophy in both 2013 and 2017.

Bobrovsky stopped 33 of 34 shots that came his way — including the first 28 — en route to the win that moves the Panthers to 14-9-5.

And in the process, the 31-year-old Russian looked like the goalie the Panthers wanted when they gave him a seven-year, $70 million contract over the offseason.

“It’s definitely a great win,” Bobrovsky said. “I thought guys tried as hard as they could to make my job easy. I spent seven years in Columbus and I appreciate the organization for everything they’ve done for me. It’s kind of weird to face your former teammates. It’s a different feeling, definitely, but I’m so happy to get the two points. I thought guys played great defensively. They allowed me to see the puck. They just played great.”

It was a needed performance with Bobrovsky entering Saturday mired in the worst start of his NHL career. He came into the game with a 3.48 goals-against average and .844 save percentage in 21 games (20 starts).

He has had highlight-worthy moments in almost every game he has been in the net and has 10 wins to his name this year following his performance Saturday. Of the 20 goaltenders with double-digit wins this season as of Saturday night, Bobrovsky is one of three with a sub-.900 save percentage. The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Matt Murray (.897) and the San Jose Sharks’ Martin Jones (.890) are the others.

But those have also been matched by his share of easy goals that have proven costly at times.

“The numbers don’t look that good,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said, “but he’s been key in big games, late in game making some big saves for us. I think that might get overlooked.”

It wasn’t overlooked Saturday.

Outside of a Vladislav Gavrikov goal with 9:26 left in regulation, Bobrovsky and the Panthers defense came up big just about every time the Blue Jackets entered the Panthers’ defensive zone.

And it came after a few pregame moments when it sunk in that Bobrovsky was playing against a group of guys he worked alongside for the majority of his NHL career.

“It was weird feelings,” Bobrovsky said. “You see your former teammates and know they’re going to try to score on you. ... It’s not the same.”

The highlight: Columbus winger Nick Foligno, who joined the Blue Jackets the same year as Bobrovsky, chirping with his former goaltender before the puck dropped.

“But I just said ‘I still love you, man,’” Bobrovsky said.

And then, Bobrovsky shifted to game mode.

Among his highlights:

▪ 15:18 left in the first: Blue Jackets winger Josh Anderson has a clear shot at the goal from the right circle. Bobrovsky denies him with a glove save.

▪ 14:19 left in the first: Columbus’ Riley Nash takes the first of four shot attempts on Bobrovsky in a 56-second span before Aleksi Saarela gets a takeaway and clears the puck from Florida’s defensive zone.

▪ 3:56 left in the first: Gustav Nyquist tries to sneak in from behind the net and tap a shot in from Bobrovsky’s left. No good.

▪ 8:18 left in the second: Bobrovsky falls in front of the net after colliding with Blue Jackets winger Sonny Milano. He gets up, repositions himself and stops a snap shot from defenseman Andrew Peeke.

▪ 5:25 left in the second: After the Panthers give up a sloppy turnover on the power play, Bobrovsky stop a point-blank short-handed shot from Cam Atkinson.

▪ 3:53 left in the second: Bobrovsky makes a tough glove save on a Milano snap shot from the left circle.

▪ 10:27 left in the third: Nash breaks free in front of two Panthers players in front of the net. Bobrovsky saves the close backhand shot to his right.

“I liked everything about his game today,” Quenneville said. “It was obviously an interesting day. I’m sure there’s a couple ways of looking at it if you’re him, but it was one of those days that you’re going to focus on him and there’s a lot of attention. It was a great response. Nice to see him really set the tone for us.”

Maybe that week-plus hiatus was needed.

Quenneville opted for Chris Driedger in the net on Nov. 30 against the Nashville Predators to start the Panthers’ nine-game homestand after Bobrovsky gave up four goals on 20 shots in a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals three nights earlier.

Driedger dazzled in his Panthers debut, recording a 27-save shutout that earned him a second start on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

Bobrovsky took advantage of the down time.

“When you have a long season, sometimes it’s good to work behind the scenes and get that reset,” Bobrovsky said. “Obviously, it’s not the way I wanted to, but I tried to do everything I could.”

It paid off on Saturday.

“I’m the same goalie,” Bobrovsky said. “I work the best I can to give the team a chance to win.”

Another big offensive night

Bobrovsky had plenty of help in front of him on Saturday.

Despite the Blue Jackets (11-14-4) outshooting Florida 34-27, the Panthers kept control for the majority of the game.

The Panthers needed just 18 seconds to give him a lead. Evgenii Dadonov tipped in a Keith Yandle pass shortly after a faceoff in the offensive zone to open scoring. It was Dadonov’s 11th goal and Yandle’s 21st assist of the season. Aleksander Barkov also had an assist on the play.

The Panthers doubled their lead with 11:03 left in the second period when Josh Brown buried a feed from Barkov in front of the net. Jonathan Huberdeau earned the secondary assist. His goal came about 15 minutes after a fight with Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno.

“You like guys that respond that way,” Quenneville said. “... It was a heck of a scrap and then he scores a huge goal for us.”

Brett Connolly made it 3-0 when he tapped in a long shot from Yandle on a power play with 13:51 left in the third period.

Mike Hoffman’s empty-net goal with 2:23 left closed scoring.

The Panthers blocked 18 Columbus shots in addition to Bobrovsky’s 33 saves.

‘Protect home ice’

In all, Saturday was a nice bounce-back win after the Panthers let a two-goal lead slip away against the Wild on Tuesday.

Florida is now 2-1-0 a third of the way through their franchise-record nine-game homestand.

“We were trying to make a statement,” Brown said. “We didn’t like our performance at the end of the game against Minnesota, especially on home ice. We want to go in with that mentality to protect home ice and play like we can.”

They have another challenge on Sunday when they host the San Jose Sharks for a 5 p.m. contest. After that, it’s three games in six days against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, the New York Islanders on Thursday and the Boston Bruins on Saturday.