Russian "Florida": Bobrovsky and Kulikov became NHL champions

The Stanley Cup final between Florida and Edmonton ended in the sixth match, in which the Panthers easily dealt with their opponent on their court — 5:1. Thus, the team of Sergey Bobrovsky and Dmitry Kulikov became the NHL champion for the second year in a row. About the final confrontation — in the material of Izvestia.

"Florida" and "Edmonton" in the final series, to the delight of all the fans, showed what offensive hockey is. Almost every match started with a quick goal, and absolutely in every match at least two goals were scored in the first 20 minutes. The same scenario was in the last game of the season.

Edmonton goalkeeper Stuart Skinner, who returned to the frame after a short rest, missed from the first shot: Sam Rinehart ran one-on-one with the Canadian goalkeeper and outplayed him. Florida fans immediately began to mock the goalkeeper, loudly chanting his name.

It is unclear if this affected Skinner, but he missed the second goal in this match before the first break. Matthew Tkachak found himself all alone in the center of the zone and accurately sent the puck past the Edmonton goalkeeper. The American couldn't swing this series for a long time, but in the last three matches of the finals he scored three goals and two assists.

Once again, Florida went into the first break, leading the score. In this series, it was different only once: in the second match, after 20 minutes of play, Edmonton led with a score of 3:2. By the way, the Oilers lost that meeting.

The Canadian team failed to turn the tide of the match, as Edmonton did more than once throughout the playoffs, in the second period. Yes, they threw more often than the opponent, but without much danger. During the 40 minutes of the meeting, the Oilers did not even score one expected goal.

And the second half ended with another Reinhart goal, which finally established the Cup winner. Skinner helped him a lot in this, as if he had deliberately kicked the puck right in front of him.

But his opponent, Sergey Bobrovsky, had an amazing series. In only one match, the Russian goalkeeper deflected less than 90% of shots. At the crucial moment, he stopped McDavid himself. Before today's game, the Canadian was the best player in the NHL in terms of points scored in games where the team is on the run: Connor has an average of 1.64 points in such matches. But in the decisive game, he scored zero effective actions.

Thanks to this, Florida won the trophy again — for the second time in a row. In the era of the ceiling, only Pittsburgh and Tampa were able to do this!

Sam Bennett is the most valuable player of the NHL playoffs that just ended. It's partly deserved. 15 goals for the entire Stanley Cup, four goals in the final series — the 28-year-old Canadian center forward played very useful. But didn't the main goaltender of Florida, Sergei Bobrovsky, really deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy for two winning playoffs?

The Panthers have a very even team, with several stars among the field players. Is it possible to imagine two-time Stanley Cup winners without Alexander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad or Matthew Tkachak? At the same time, Bobrovsky has a key role. It is unlikely that Florida would have reached the finals at least once, if not for the brilliant play of the Russian goalkeeper. With all due respect to Bennett, it would be much easier to replace him.

Bobrovsky's superiority over the goalkeepers of Edmonton is especially significant. Stuart Skinner looked good throughout the playoffs, but in the final he started missing almost everything that flies into the goal. Calvin Picard, who replaced him, got in well, but he failed his only full—fledged match, the fifth. Bobrovsky, on the other hand, played the final series very confidently, without losing a single time in regular time.

Over the past 13 years, the goalie has won the prize only once — Andrei Vasilevsky from Tampa Bay took it four years ago. The winner is determined by a vote of journalists, and for the last four seasons he has been selected exclusively by Canadians — subjective factors probably matter. For political reasons, the Stanley Cup has not been brought to Russia all this time, so maybe there are such motives with the MVP?

But even without Conn Smythe, hardly anyone can challenge Bobrovsky's greatness. To win two championships in a row at the age of 36 as the main goalkeeper was not achieved even by the legendary Martin Brodeur or Patrick Roy. And some personal prizes pale against this background.

Bobrovsky was twice recognized as the best goalkeeper of the season and won the Vezina Trophy: none of the Russians did this. Now he has two championship rings, so we can officially declare that it is the Novokuznetsk native who is the best Russian goalkeeper in history. Stopping McDavid in the finals two seasons in a row is truly legendary.