Not Matthew Tkachuk or Brad Marchand, Florida Coach Credits Tampa Bay Victory to Unsung Heroes

The Florida Panthers have just won the battle of the Sunshine State for this year with a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 5 of round one of their playoff series. And though the goals were flying, coach Paul Maurice credits the goaltenders for the Panthers’ performance in this series and not the scorers.

In a post-game interview after the big win, Paul Maurice was asked to speak on the ‘maturity’ of his team, and while he did commend all players highly, saying, “What you really appreciate is on the bench by what gets said, the composure part of it,” he soon went on to stress the importance of Sergei Bobrovsky, saying, “But I think possibly the spotlight should then go back on Sergei Bobrovsky; it doesn’t matter how good you are in the goal if you don’t have a guy in that situation.” Bobrovsky certainly played a huge role in Florida’s win this season, and Maurice has spoken frequently about his consistency as the team’s goaltender. Heading into these playoffs, Bobrovsky even celebrated the 424th win of his career, which made him one of the ten most successful goaltenders in NHL history.

Paul Maurice didn’t fail to commend Vasilevskiy for his performance during the series either, adding, “This was a really difficult series for both goaltenders. We got some talent; we got some skill, but we had 20 shot games, right, like there wasn’t a lot of, you would say, shot traffic to the net. The shooters were elite, so you would sit for a block of time, 6-7 minutes, where there was nothing going on, and then the next shot is world class.” Which one could say was a backhanded compliment for the shooters while still spotlighting the goaltenders, which is fair because Vasilevskiy deserves his due credit. In game 3, where Tampa Bay Lightning beat Florida Panthers 5-1, Vasilevskiy made 33 saves of 34 shots! Which is possibly what prompted Maurice to end his interview with, “Both goaltenders, their ability to, the mental toughness that it takes to play that game were the deciding factors, probably for both franchises in their time of success.” 

Is Maurice right? Have these two goalkeepers, in fact, been the deciding factors in times of their franchises’ success? Let’s take a look at the stats.

Does Paul Maurice’s high praise for the Florida Panthers goaltenders match up to their stats?

First off, Vasilevskiy. In the 2024-2025 season alone, Andrei Vasileskiy racked up a save percentage of .921, and his career total is .917! His total number of wins, however, over the 63 games he played in the 2024-2025 season is only 38, a little above 60%. So, while he’s clearly holding the fort down between the poles, his team doesn’t seem to be matching up to his efforts on the front end.

Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, on the other hand, while he has a slightly lower save percentage—.906 in the 2024-2025 season and 0.914 as a career total—has a higher number of wins this season, with 33 wins off of 54 games. Again, looking at the stats, it only makes sense that Paul Maurice would take the time to give credit where credit was due and mention Vasilevskiy’s efforts in this series alongside Bobrovsky. Who knows how Tampa would look had all their lines come together as well as Florida Panthers’ this postseason? Or how Vasilevskiy would look had he been on the opposite team.

Well, we can only imagine until the 2027-2028 season. Vasilevskiy signed an eight-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019. So, to allow Vasilevskiy to reach his full potential, either Jon Cooper will have to do some major work on the front end, or Vasilevskiy will have to wait it out till he can enter the trade market. Perhaps this is why Paul Maurice is playing his cards wisely, knowing that Bobrovsky is currently 36, while Vasileskiy will be up for free agency at 33!