The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are slowly starting to turn things around, but they still need a little more from their star netminder.

While the team has had numerous injury problems in the early going, the Florida Panthers have been expected to still be near the top of the Atlantic Division. The Cats have managed to score their way out of problems, especially since the team is 19th in the NHL in goals against.

One of the concerning factors has been the play of Sergei Bobrovsky. Though he has won four straight starts, his overall numbers aren’t ideal. The Russian backstop has a record of 14-8-1 with a 2.80 goals-against average and a .888 save percentage.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss how Bobrovsky needs to be better if the Panthers want to be considered one of the best in the East.

Tyler Yaremchuk: It’s great that they can lean on [Daniil] Tarasov a little bit, and Bob doesn’t have to play, quite as much….But for [the Panthers] to be fully back, they have to be the Florida Panthers that defend the way the Florida Panthers do and keep pucks out of their net. And that ties into Bobrovsky…For me to fully declare the Panthers back, I need to get a sense that Sergei Bobrovsky is back to being the Sergei Bobrovsky of old, which is not a guarantee. 

Carter Hutton: Look at the games this guy has played over the last three years, right? That’s three Stanley Cup finals, winning two of them. … It’s funny. You look back, three years ago, where Alex Lyon was the goalie to get them in the playoffs, and we sat here…and we’re like, ‘What the hell? You can’t pay your goalie $10 million. How do you expect to be good?’ … For Bob, I know he is a fitness freak and he takes really, really great care of himself. But nobody’s ever beat time. Time is going to wear you down, and I think that’s where just getting him in a better slot. This is something I really noticed that the Boston Bruins did with Tuukka Rask later in his career. They went and found goalies to play 40 games for them. They were like, ‘I don’t care how good you’re playing. You’re going to play 40 games and we’re going to have you ready for what it matters most.’ I think that’s what you need to see from Bob at this point. 

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…