Philadelphia Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky ready for next season with newly gained confidence
Sergei Bobrovsky had a great time playing with Philadelphia Flyers as the teams’ main backup goalie in his first regular season in the National Hockey League (NHL) during 2010-2011.
Since joining the North American major league, Bobrovsky has gained valuable confidence not only on the ice but also off it as well. Coming into a new country, the language barrier had always been a problem for the 22-year-old goaltender, but now, he certainly
thinks his English is a lot better than it was before.
Bobrovsky discussed his experience in the NHL so far and describes it as much different from where he used to play, in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
"I learned lots of things, lots of new hockey", Bobrovsky said on Tuesday, August 30. "It's different hockey between the KHL and NHL. Now I know what it means to play 82 games".
After playing four straight seasons with Metallurg Novokuznetsk of the Russian KHL, Bobrovsky was picked up by Philadelphia Flyers without being drafted and was signed on to a three-year, entry-level contract before the 2010-2011 season took off.
The Novokuznetsk, Russia, native has an annual salary cap hit of $1.75 million and has so far impressed Flyers in a great way.
Playing his first playoff series last season, Bobrovsky managed to lead his team to round-two of the Eastern Conference showdown and regards that experience as truly valuable.
"After 82 (regular-season) games, it's a new season, it's the playoffs and it's more pressure", Bobrovsky said. "Everybody forgets about the 82 games and now it's new (playoff) games. It was all new for me. ... I got lots of experience from last season”.
Last season, Bobrovsky played in a huge chunk of the season by performing in 54 matchups and maintained an impressive record by winning 28 and a save percentage of .915 along with a goals against average of 2.59.
For next season, Flyers have added another veteran goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov, for nine-years and are dedicated to provide a quality backup to Bobrovsky. It will certainly be a factor for competition for Sergei Bobrovsky, but according to him, he is not worried
at all.
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