It’s been a tough year for Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. He has struggled mightily in the early going, and has admitted to losing his confidence.
I decided to take a look at the numbers to see where exactly Bobrovsky has struggled. Here are his stats at 5 on 5 from this season, as well as from 2012-2015.
For those who dislike charts here is that same data in graph form.
Bob has struggled in every area. In particular the medium dangers chances have been giving him the most issues. Medium danger chances come from the red area in diagram below, from War On Ice.
To give an example of a medium danger chance, the goals scored by Bryan Little, and Blake Wheeler on Saturday were medium danger chances. These are the ones that a lot of the time make you say “he should of have had that.…
The .942 Bob posted from 2012-2015 ranked third in the league among goalies with at least 110 games. The .842 that Bob currently has is second worst in the league ahead of only Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers. It would also be the lowest of Bobrovsky’s career.
It’s very unlikely Bob has gone from one of the best goalies in the world to one of the worst that fast. So the team has to keep playing him and hope that some positive regression is in order. The issue right now has to be between the ears. Bob has proved he can make medium danger saves at an elite level. Once he re-gains his confidence his save percentage on all shots will improve.
If the team is going to go on a run for the playoffs they need Bob to re-gain his form, fast.
Data courtesy of War On Ice.
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