FORT LAUDERDALE — Brad Marchand has an experience few Panthers have: He has faced Sergei Bobrovsky when the goalie was in playoff mode.

“His reads are incredible … He’s not a huge guy, but he just seems to cover a lot of the net,” Marchand said. “I don’t know a whole lot about goaltending, but I know he’s really good at it.”

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Bobrovsky had a key save on a Marchand breakaway in Game 5 of the 2023 Bruins series, forcing overtime before Matthew Tkachuk scored the game-winning goal. Without that save, what became the Panthers’ run to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup Final would have ended in the first round. This three-year run of excellence would have never happened.

It is easy to forget that when Florida started its run of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, Bobrovsky was not even the Panthers’ starting goalie. Alex Lyon started the first three games of the first series in 2023, but coach Paul Maurice inserted the veteran Bobrovsky back into the starting role for Game 4 of that series, and the rest was history. Now Bobrovsky and the Panthers are two wins away from lifting the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row.

“It is kind of a faith builder when you look at people that do all the right things and put so much focus and attention into being great,” Maurice said. “… Character is the ardent pursuit of excellence without the guarantee of reward. He never wavered.

“From the start of training camp, he just did his thing, and he worked hard at it. I’m sure there were times where he had to believe in himself very, very deeply to stay the course and come in. … It was also a great payoff for him for all that work, just from a personal level.”

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Bobrovsky, who signed a seven-year, $70 million contract before the 2019 season, was a great goalie before he arrived in Florida. He had won the Vezina Trophy twice. But he struggled with the Panthers. He had a 2.97 goals against average in the first four seasons in Sunrise, and Florida was banking on Spencer Knight to be the team’s future netminder.

But the 2023 run entrenched Bobrovksy in Florida’s net. He returned to form over the past two seasons, earning an All-Star spot in 2024 and notching a 2.40 goals against average over the past two seasons. He has started every playoff game since Game 4 of the first-round series against the Bruins in 2023.

When Florida won the Stanley Cup last year, Bobrovsky was fourth in the Conn Smythe Trophy voting. He is as important of a piece of the Panthers’ Final runs as Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk or Carter Verhaeghe, and every teammate raves about playing with him.

“He’s giving us a lot of confidence back there,” defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “He’s so calm back there, and it spreads to rest our team, not just the D-men, but just for everyone.”

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Bobrovsky has a 2.47 goals against average and a .912 save percentage in the playoffs since Game 4 of the 2023 first round. He has made big save after big save in each postseason. This year, he has a 2.15 goals against average in the postseason, which is third-best among NHL goalies who played in this year’s playoffs.

Panthers backup Vitek Vanecek, who joined the team in March, noticed that Bobrovsky does the small things, limiting any extra movement.

“He’s really quiet in the net. … He’s not doing extra moves,” Vanecek said. “He’s playing just smart positionally, you know, that kind of stuff. So that’s a big thing.”

Other teams, including the Oilers, have tried to get in his head and rough him up — all to no effect.

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“I appreciate the respect,” Bobrovsky said.

But the veteran goalie is modest when asked about his own performance, preferring to defer to his teammates — even as he is two wins away from another championship.

“I just (take) one at a time, you know, one moment at a time,” Bobrovsky said after Florida’s Game 3 win. “I don’t think too much. It’s a Stanley Cup Final. I appreciate the opportunity and value the opportunity to play. And, yeah, it’s just a privilege to be here.”