Aaron Ekblad Avoids Injury; Will Suit Up On Friday For Panthers
Aaron Ekblad avoids an injury and will be available when the Florida Panthers host the Calgary Flames .
Video Transcript
Uh, you know, looking at the struggles that Bobrovsky's been having, Do you think that they should be concerned?
At all, uh, Or whats the level of concern with this?
Well, the one injury or the one performance that I don't think that they Cold weather is in goal because, unlike previous years when they had Spencer Knight.
As the fallback, or Anthony Stolarz when he had that really good year before they won the Cup.
You know, Daniel TarasovI mean, he's actually playing very well.
.913 save percentage, has 7 victories, has a couple of victories, 2.45 goals against average.
Those are good statistics.
But they need Bobrovsky to play like himself, and he's got a sub-0.900 save percentage.
And with all the injuries that they have had Kochuk and Barakov, Uh, one of their defensemen that I'm drawing a blank on right now, Um, you know, they need Bobrovsky to play at a high level.
Now, they're going to get Kochuk back in late December.
Um, they're probably not getting Barkov back until the playoffs.
So they're going to need him to tune up his game.
And, you know, the only thing you have to worry about here.
He's 30, you know, hes in his late 30s.
There is a certain drop-off at a certain point.
And if he is dropping off, then chances are Florida Panthers, The Florida Panthers three-peat bid is now kaput.
Yeah, DeAndre, obviously being in Tampa, you've seen, uh, The Panthers have changed quite a bit over years, you know, Covering that rivalry with the Lightning.
I mean, What would your concern level be for the Panthers if Bobrovsky is just kind of hitting This cliff right now?
Well, I think we can also compare it to when the Lightning, Um, you know, won back-to-back Cups and then went to the Stanley Cup Final, and you, You can't underestimate what that does to a goalie for.
From a wear and tear perspective, I remember Andrei Vasilevski talking about that.
Like, it is very difficult to do.
So, I think probably what we're seeing with Bobrovsky is the effect of going to three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals more than it is A drop-off, although obviously age is an issue, you know.
Eventually, it catches up with everybody, but I think that that's kind of what we're seeing now.
We're seeing it across the board with the Panthers, not just.
You know, in net, there is a price to pay when you do that.
However, I would never count them out of anything.
So, um, you know, we'll see what happens, You know, down the stretch here, but I would, I wouldn't count Bobrovsky out.
I think it's just that he's played a lot of hockey the past few years.
