The Flyers' tacit admission of mishandling Sergei Bobrovsky

Are we sure there isn’t a connection between them saying he needed a little rest and Bob’s quotes about not quite being over what happened in Game 2? I’ll link back to the series of quotes from Teemu’s twitter here. They may be saying that those quotes were their indication that he needed rest, I don’t know. It was also reported that Bob spent a lot of extra time working on things with Reese during the time he was scratched, so I’m not sure I can rule out that there wasn’t a connection somewhere.

There were certainly still mistakes made, though.

Geoff, I got nothin’ but love for ya, but you’re “lawyering” Reese’s words here a little bit.

Ignoring the fact that one can “sit and watch” from the bench

You know as well as I do that sitting and watching from the bench is a million times different than sitting and watching from the press box. If something goes wrong with your goaltender during the game, and you (as the backup) are “sitting and watching” from the bench, guess what? You ain’t sitting and watching any more. You’re playing in the game and not getting the rest you need.

Mentally, you don’t have that same pressure when you’re sitting in the press box. You don’t have to keep your focus at a certain level just in case you need to go into the game. So “sitting and watching” on the bench is not restive / restorative at all, if you think about it. You participate in warm-ups, you’re keeping your focus at a certain level “just in case,” and you’re lugging all that equipment around.

That said, I agree that Bob was mishandled down the stretch of the regular season. Hell, he was mishandled early in the season when he played infinity billion games in a row before flaming out against the Lightning in November.

And not to be all Brainy Smurf / MarioD on everyone here, but when it comes to Bob’s being relegated to the press box so he could rest and learn by watching playoff hockey, "I was right! IIIIII was riiiiight!!!!!!"

Bob has a ton of natural ability and he seems to have a great attitude. Those attributes speak well for his future, but unfortunately there’s no way to predict how things will turn out.

And not to be all Brainy Smurf / MarioD on everyone here, but when it comes to Bob’s being relegated to the press box so he could rest and learn by watching playoff hockey,

"I was right! IIIIII was riiiiight!!!!!!"

The Sarcasm Font likes to block the text above it.

The Flyers have good goaltending. His name is Sergei Bobrovsky. Play him next year.

Wow, good catch there Geoff. I had the feeling that playing him too much down the stretch wasn’t a good thing, and I wanted to see him rest a little more.

And regardless, he should’ve started Game 6 in Buffalo.

Not really an original one, but taking others’ idea a step further.

So if Bob was tired, th ebest solution to continue his development at the NHL level is to ‘platoon’ him with another goalie right? And, better yet, perhaps someone who speaks his language better than Coatesy does?

There are two immediate names that jump out – Evgeni Nabokov and Semyon Varlamov. Nabokov is older (35), but his proven record in the NHL is quite good – averaging around a 2.25 GAA and a SV% close to .915. He’s currently under a deferred contract with the NY Islanders, whom he refused to join last season, for a bare $570,000 salary. Then we have Varlamov – much younger (23), with limited NHL experience of 59 games. In those 59 games (most of which in the last two seasons as a backup and all with Washington) he’s posted pretty impressive numbers as well: 2.42 GAA and .917 SV%, even behind the porous defense the Caps had before this season. His salary is somewhat undetermined, since he’s coming off his entry level salary of $821,667 as an RFA for 2011-2012.

Nabokov clearly doesn’t want to play for the Islanders. Would he accept a trade to the Flyers, or would that still not be a team he wishes to play for (a list which may run the gamut from Detroit all the way to the Red Wings, with no other stops); we just don’t know yet. His salary with the Isles is an outstanding deal for a goalie of his caliber, even if it is totally loaded with incentives. Is one year enough tutelage for Bob to get his feet under him? Remember that this past season was his FIRST in North America, let alone in the NHL. Would Nabokov resign for another year at the same salary if he performs well? Would he renegotiate another year as a condition to playing here? Lots of questions, not many answers.

Varlamov seems disinterested in staying in Washington for some reason – there has been speculation about him returning to the KHL next season. The Caps are apparently interested in getting Braden Holtby on the NHL roster, and resigned Michal Neuvirth, which seems to leave Varlamov as the odd-man-out. I saw a quote somewhere about him being interested in staying in the NHL, even if not with the Caps – so the opportunity is there to land him, at least from the player’s point of view. The Caps organization hasn’t made clear if they want to offer him the RFA qualifier, if Holtby needs AHL seasoning, or if they would rather get something in trade for Varlamov before he gives them the Russian equivalent of the middle finger and goes home.

I posit that either option would work for the Flyers. Nabokov could be an effective starting goalie while Bob gets more experience and works with Jeff Reese another season. Varlamov could be plenty effective in a tandem situation with Bob, and both could learn together. Either one comes with a manageable cap hit, less than even resigning Boucher would cost – and in my opinion, either would be an upgrade in skill level over Boosh as well (although not in those intangibles like ‘trust’ and ‘heart’ … maybe Boosh just needs a new mask?).

Thoughts? And sorry for the long comment – it’s not QUITE enough for a full fanpost.