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BOSTON — In the regular season, Sergei Bobrovsky is known as one of the top goaltenders in the NHL, as evidenced by his nomination for the Vezina Trophy, which he has won twice before.

In the Stanley Cup playoffs, he’s known simply as “Playoff Bob.”

Who is Playoff Bob?

“I mean, I don’t even know if there’s one word to describe him,” Florida Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said. “Focus. That’s a good one, I guess.”

“Ultimate compete. Ultimate preparation,” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “His calm and coolness in the net under any circumstances.”

“He’s just on another level,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said.

That’s the perception of Playoff Bob. It’s reinforced by incredible postseason saves like his diving stop in the first round with his back turned to center ice, which was immortalized on a T-shirt as “The Bobbery.”

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Sergei Bobrovsky makes unbelievable save to deny Lightning

Check out this sensational save from Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 2 vs. the Lightning.

But the reality of Playoff Bob, at least in the 2024 postseason, is different from the perception.

Sure, he’s 7-2 for the Panthers, who are one victory away from advancing to the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight season. He has a 2.55 goals-against average, which ranks him fifth among goalies with at least six postseason appearances. But those are largely team-driven stats for a goaltender.

From an individual perspective, Bobrovsky has a .892 save percentage, which ranks eighth out of nine goalies with at least six appearances. Only Stuart Skinner of the Edmonton Oilers ranks lower (.877), a goaltender whose status for Game 4 against the Vancouver Canucks is uncertain due to his ineffectiveness.

Money Puck has Bobrovsky at 0.5 goals saved above expected. Stathletes has him at minus-1.3 goals saved above expected in all situations. Natural Stat Trick has Bobrovsky at minus-1 goals saved above average. His save percentage vs. expected save percentage (-0.70) is 11th in the postseason.

So based on all of that, who is Playoff Bob?

“He’s at a point in his career where he should be oblivious to the stats,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “They don’t matter. His stats won’t be good, but his play is fantastic.”


THIS IS BOBROVSKY’S 14th NHL season. His NHL run started in 2010-11 with the Philadelphia Flyers, who signed him as a free agent out of the KHL. After two seasons in Philadelphia, and one season under big-ticket free agent signing Ilya Bryzgalov, the Flyers traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets, where Bobrovsky blossomed: He won the Vezina Trophy in his first season in Columbus (2012-13) and then again in the 2016-17 season.

He was signed away from the Blue Jackets by then-Florida GM Dale Tallon on a seven-year, $70 million contract with full trade protection. The size of that contract weighed on him during his first couple of seasons in Florida, but Bobrovsky was a big reason the Panthers became a Stanley Cup contender.

While his career save percentage in the regular season (.915) is higher than in the postseason (.904), he earned the Playoff Bob reputation with a couple of impressive series wins. In 2019, he backstopped the Blue Jackets to a first-round sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning in one of the biggest upsets in NHL history. In 2022, he battled for a six-game series win over the Washington Capitals, the first playoff series win for the Panthers franchise since its appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.

Last season, Bobrovsky had a .915 save percentage in leading the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final again, where they lost to the Vegas Golden Knights. Alex Lyon started the postseason for the Panthers after helping to lead them to a playoff berth in the regular season. Bobrovsky replaced Lyon during Game 3 of the first round and helped them win two critical road games, including Game 7.

But the highlight of his postseason was Game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference finals: a four-overtime epic in which Bobrovsky stopped 63 of 65 shots in full Playoff Bob mode.

“At that point you don’t feel much about your body. It’s more mental,” he said at the time. “Your focus is completely on the game. One shot at a time and you don’t think about your body.”

No goalie faced more shots than Bobrovsky last postseason (639), including 31.2 per game at 5-on-5 — a total inflated a bit by overtime games. This playoff run from the Panthers couldn’t be more different: Bobrovsky is facing just 22.9 shots per game.

The good news is that the Panthers are a much better defensive team year over year, tying the Winnipeg Jets for first in the NHL with a 2.41 goals-against average in the regular season.

But this presented a new challenge to Bobrovsky: getting to his game, and staying on his game, without facing anything close to his previous shot volume.

“He’s not on his A-plus-game right now, but I think he’s playing well,” said Kevin Weekes, ESPN analyst and former NHL goaltender. “It’s different because there’s not a lot of volume. It’s hard to get in and stay in the rhythm in any game right now.”

Weekes said that goalies use shots from a distance to get into a rhythm. “Some clear out point shots where you can make a clean save and get the feel,” he said.

“It’s weird. For the most part, Florida’s dominating. And then when they do give up some chances, they’re kind of Grade A,” he said.

Maurice said that quality vs. quantity change was on full display in the Panthers’ first-round win over the Lightning.

“I think we really noticed it in the Tampa series. Those guys hang on at pucks. They’ve got so much deception in their game. Their shot numbers weren’t high, but they were just so dangerous,” he said. “I feel that a guy that doesn’t have the experience that Bob has would’ve a difficult time doing what Sergei’s been able to do.”

Weekes saw something similar.

“It’s very different than it was last year, because last year he was like stealing games and they were giving up a lot more in the playoffs,” he said. “So far, certainly in this round and even against Tampa, he’s not getting as much volume. It’s a tougher way to stay busy and to stay sharp as easily.”


THERE’S A LOT of psychology involved in Bobrovsky’s postseason workload.

First, there’s his own mentality. Without facing shots to keep him sharp, Bobrovsky (who declined to comment for this story) has had to remain engaged mentally in different ways.

“I believe that he has a mental program that he’s running in those long stretches of time because he’s done it before,” Maurice said. “He’s so routine in what he does, so he would have a routine in the net for staying sharp and staying mentally alert.”

Another mental hurdle for Bobrovsky is the realization that his numbers aren’t going to be as stellar as they’ve been in seasons past.

“I think it’s been an incredibly difficult start for him in the playoffs,” Maurice said. “I don’t mean the quality of his play. He made some saves that we’ll probably be seeing for the next 10 years, like the backhand spin-around. But Tampa Bay is really difficult to game because they have the [David] Pastrnak level of skill [but] they don’t shoot every puck. So the numbers aren’t going to look good against Tampa. They’re not putting up 50 shots.”

When opponents aren’t putting up shots, that can also have a psychological impact.

Maurice recalled when his teams would face Hockey Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur, whose New Jersey Devils teams would prevent shots on goal for long stretches.

“I remember we were going to play New Jersey back in their prime and walking by the door and I hear [former NHL player] Nelson Emerson say, ‘We’re probably only getting three chances tonight, fellas. We’ve got to make good on them,'” recalled the coach.

One goaltending analyst told ESPN that Bobrovsky has an aura about him that makes opponents feel they have to capitalize on the chances they get to score on the Panthers netminder.

“The numbers don’t say he’s dominating. Right,” the analyst said. “But I feel like he’s so mobile, he’s so explosive that there still can be an intimidation factor.”

The final psychological impact of Playoff Bob is on his teammates. For the players on the ice, it’s the way that Bobrovsky can turn his performance around in a single game. Look no further than Game 4 against the Boston Bruins, when he gave up two goals on five shots in the first period, and then didn’t allow a goal for the rest of the game.

“That’s who he is. It’s funny: It’s cliché with every team. You always tell your goalie to shut the door and we’ll get this one back for you,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. “A lot of people say that, but it feels like when we do, he goes out and actually does it. He’s been incredible for us all year. Steady as can be. Game 4 was another example of it.”

Playoff Bob serves another purpose for his teammates: A great performance in goal could mean less scrutiny of their own mishaps in a victory.

“You don’t have to go to therapy as much, right?” Maurice said. “If he doesn’t [play well], you’re in team therapy, you’re in the video room going, ‘You made these four mistakes and that’s why the goal went in.’ And then if he stops it, we pat them on the back and say, ‘Great job.’ And nobody talks about the mistakes. So there are fewer therapy sessions when he’s playing like that.”

Such is the impact of Playoff Bob.

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Red Sox activate 3B Bregman from 10-day IL

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Red Sox activate 3B Bregman from 10-day IL

BOSTON — The Red Sox activated All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman from the 10-day injured list before Friday’s game against Tampa Bay.

Bregman, who has been sidelined since May 24 with a right quad strain, returned to his customary spot in the field and was slotted in the No. 2 spot of Boston’s lineup for the second of a four-game series against the Rays. He sustained the injury when he rounded first base and felt his quad tighten up.

A two-time World Series winner who spent the first nine seasons of his big league career with the Houston Astros, Bregman signed a $120 million, three-year contract in February. At the time of the injury, he was hitting .299 with 11 homers and 35 RBI. Those numbers led to him being named to the American League’s All-Star team for the third time since breaking into the majors with the Astros in 2016.

Bregman missed 43 games with the quad strain. Earlier this week, he told reporters that he was trending in a direction where he didn’t believe he would require a minor league rehab assignment. With three games left before the All-Star break, the Red Sox agreed the time was right to reinstate a player to a team that entered Friday in possession of one of the AL’s three wild-card berths.

“He’s going to do his part,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said before Friday’s game. “Obviously, the timing, we’ll see where he’s at, but he’s been working hard on the swing … visualizing and watching video.”

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How Jim Abbott changed the world

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How Jim Abbott changed the world

JIM ABBOTT IS sitting at his kitchen table, with his old friend Tim Mead. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were partners in an extraordinary exercise — and now, for the first time in decades, they are looking at a stack of letters and photographs from that period of their lives.

The letters are mostly handwritten, by children, from all over the United States and Canada, and beyond.

“Dear Mr. Abbott …”

“I have one hand too. … I don’t know any one with one hand. How do you feel about having one hand? Sometimes I feel sad and sometimes I feel okay about it. Most of the time I feel happy.”

“I am a seventh grader with a leg that is turned inwards. How do you feel about your arm? I would also like to know how you handle your problem? I would like to know, if you don’t mind, what have you been called?”

“I can’t use my right hand and most of my right side is paralyzed. … I want to become a doctor and seeing you makes me think I can be what I want to be.”

For 40 years, Mead worked in communications for the California Angels, eventually becoming vice president of media relations. His position in this department became a job like no other after the Angels drafted Abbott out of the University of Michigan in 1988.

There was a deluge of media requests. Reporters from around the world descended on Anaheim, most hoping to get one-on-one time with the young left-handed pitcher with the scorching fastball. Every Abbott start was a major event — “like the World Series,” Angels scout Bob Fontaine Jr. remembers. Abbott, with his impressive amateur résumé (he won the James E. Sullivan Award for the nation’s best amateur athlete in 1997 and an Olympic gold medal in 1988) and his boyish good looks, had star power.

That spring, he had become only the 16th player to go straight from the draft to the majors without appearing in a single minor league game. And then there was the factor that made him unique. His limb difference, although no one called it that back then. Abbott was born without a right hand, yet had developed into one of the most promising pitchers of his generation. He would go on to play in the majors for ten years, including a stint in the mid ’90s with the Yankees highlighted by a no-hitter in 1993.

Abbott, and Mead, too, knew the media would swarm. That was no surprise. There had been swarms in college, and at the Olympics, wherever and whenever Abbott pitched. Who could resist such an inspirational story? But what they hadn’t anticipated were the letters.

The steady stream of letters. Thousands of letters. So many from kids who, like Abbott, were different. Letters from their parents and grandparents. The kids hoping to connect with someone who reminded them of themselves, the first celebrity they knew of who could understand and appreciate what it was like to be them, someone who had experienced the bullying and the feelings of otherness. The parents and grandparents searching for hope and direction.

“I know you don’t consider yourself limited in what you can do … but you are still an inspiration to my wife and I as parents. Your success helps us when talking to Andy at those times when he’s a little frustrated. I’m able to point to you and assure him there’s no limit to what he can accomplish.”

In his six seasons with the Angels, Abbott was assisted by Mead in the process of organizing his responses to the letters, mailing them, and arranging face-to-face meetings with the families who had written to him. There were scores of such meetings. It was practically a full-time job for both of them.

“Thinking back on these meetings with families — and that’s the way I’d put it, it’s families, not just kids — there was every challenge imaginable,” Abbott, now 57, says. “Some accidents. Some birth defects. Some mental challenges that aren’t always visible to people when you first come across somebody. … They saw something in playing baseball with one hand that related to their own experience. I think the families coming to the ballparks were looking for hopefulness. I think they were looking for what it had been that my parents had told me, what it had been that my coaches had told me. … [With the kids] it was an interaction. It was catch. It was smiling. It was an autograph. It was a picture. With the parents, it ran deeper. With the parents, it was what had your parents said to you? What coaches made a difference? What can we expect? Most of all, I think, what can we expect?”

“It wasn’t asking for autographs,” Mead says of all those letters. “They weren’t asking for pictures. They were asking for his time. He and I had to have a conversation because this was going to be unique. You know, you could set up another player to come down and sign 15 autographs for this group or whatever. But it was people, parents, that had kids, maybe babies, just newborn babies, almost looking for an assurance that this is going to turn out all right, you know. ‘What did your parents do? How did your parents handle this?'”

One of the letters Abbott received came from an 8-year-old girl in Windsor, Ontario.

She wrote, “Dear Jim, My name is Tracey Holgate. I am age 8. I have one hand too. My grandpa gave me a picture of you today. I saw you on TV. I don’t know anyone with one hand. How do you feel about having one hand? Sometimes I feel sad and sometimes I feel okay about it. Most of the time I feel happy. I hope to see you play in Detroit and maybe meet you. Could you please send me a picture of you in uniform? Could you write back please? Here is a picture of me. Love, Tracey.”

Holgate’s letter is one of those that has remained preserved in a folder — and now Abbott is reading it again, at his kitchen table, half a lifetime after receiving it. Time has not diminished the power of the letter, and Abbott is wiping away tears.

Today, Holgate is 44 and goes by her married name, Dupuis. She is married with four children of her own. She is a teacher. When she thinks about the meaning of Jim Abbott in her life, it is about much more than the letter he wrote back to her. Or the autographed picture he sent her. It was Abbott, all those years ago, who made it possible for Tracey to dream.

“There was such a camaraderie there,” she says, “an ability to connect with somebody so far away doing something totally different than my 8-year-old self was doing, but he really allowed me to just feel that connection, to feel that I’m not alone, there’s other people that have differences and have overcome them and been successful and we all have our own crosses, we all have our own things that we’re carrying and it’s important to continue to focus on the gifts that we have, the beauty of it.

“I think sometimes differences, disabilities, all those things can be a gift in a package we would never have wanted, because they allow us to be people that have an empathetic heart, an understanding heart, and to see the pain in the people around us.”

Now, years after Abbott’s career ended, he continues to inspire.

Among those he influenced, there are professional athletes, such as Shaquem Griffin, who in 2018 became the first NFL player with one hand. Griffin, now 29, played three seasons at linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.

Growing up in Florida, he would watch videos of Abbott pitching and fielding, over and over, on YouTube.

“The only person I really looked up to was Jim Abbott at the time,” Griffin says, “which is crazy, because I didn’t know anybody else to look up to. I didn’t know anybody else who was kind of like me. And it’s funny, because when I was really little, I used to be like, ‘Why me? Why this happen to me?’ And I used to be in my room thinking about that. And I used to think to myself, ‘I wonder if Jim Abbott had that same thought.'”

Carson Pickett was born on Sept. 15, 1993 — 11 days after Abbott’s no-hitter. Missing most of her left arm below the elbow, she became, in 2022, the first player with a limb difference to appear for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.

She, too, says that Abbott made things that others told her were impossible seem attainable.

“I knew I wanted to be a professional soccer player,” says Pickett, who is currently playing for the NWSL’s Orlando Pride. “To be able to see him compete at the highest level it gave me hope, and I think that that kind of helped me throughout my journey. … I think ‘pioneer’ would be the best word for him.”

Longtime professional MMA fighter Nick Newell is 39, old enough to have seen Abbott pitch for the Yankees. In fact, when Newell was a child he met Abbott twice, first at a fan event at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan and then on a game day at Yankee Stadium. Newell was one of those kids with a limb difference — like Griffin and Pickett, due to amniotic band syndrome — who idolized Abbott.

“And I didn’t really understand the gravity of what he was doing,” Newell says now, “but for me, I saw someone out there on TV that looked like I did. And I was the only other person I knew that had one hand. And I saw this guy out here playing baseball and it was good to see somebody that looked like me, and I saw him in front of the world.

“He was out there like me and he was just living his life and I think that I owe a lot of my attitude and the success that I have to Jim just going out there and being the example of, ‘Hey, you can do this. Who’s to say you can’t be a professional athlete?’ He’s out there throwing no-hitters against the best baseball players in the world. So, as I got older, ‘Why can’t I wrestle? Why can’t I fight? Why can’t I do this?’ And then it wasn’t until the internet that I heard people tell me I can’t do these things. But by then I had already been doing those things.”

Griffin.

Pickett.

Newell.

Just three of the countless kids who were inspired by Jim Abbott.

When asked if it ever felt like too much, being a role model and a hero, all the letters and face-to-face meetings, Abbott says no — but it wasn’t always easy.

“I had incredible people who helped me send the letters,” he says. “I got a lot more credit sometimes than I deserved for these interactions, to be honest with you. And that happened on every team, particularly with my friend Tim Mead. There was a nice balance to it. There really was. There was a heaviness to it. There’s no denying. There were times I didn’t want to go [to the meetings]. I didn’t want to walk out there. I didn’t want to separate from my teammates. I didn’t want to get up from the card game. I didn’t want to put my book down. I liked where I was at. I was in my environment. I was where I always wanted to be. In a big league clubhouse surrounded by big league teammates. In a big league stadium. And those reminders of being different, I slowly came to realize were never going to go away.”

But being different was the thing that made Abbott more than merely a baseball star. For many people, he has been more than a role model, more than an idol. He is the embodiment of hope and belonging.

“I think more people need to realize and understand the gift of a difference,” Dupuis says. “I think we have to just not box everybody in and allow everybody’s innate light to shine, and for whatever reasons we’ve been created to be here, [let] that light shine in a way that it touches everybody else. Because I think that’s what Jim did. He allowed his light to permeate and that light, in turn, lit all these little children’s lights all over the world, so you have this boom of brightness that’s happening and that’s uncontrollable, that’s beautiful.”

“Southpaw – The Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott,” a new edition of ESPN’s “E60,” debuts Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN; extended version streaming afterward on ESPN+.

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Cubs’ PCA on track for $1.1M from bonus pool

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Cubs' PCA on track for .1M from bonus pool

NEW YORK — Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is projected to receive the largest amount from this season’s $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool based on his regular-season statistics.

Crow-Armstrong is on track to get $1,091,102, according to WAR calculations through July 8 that Major League Baseball sent to teams, players and agents in a memo Friday that was obtained by The Associated Press.

He earned $342,128 from the pool in 2024.

“I was aware of it after last year, but I have no clue of the numbers,” he said Friday. “I haven’t looked at it one time.”

Pittsburgh pitcher Paul Skenes is second at $961,256, followed by Washington outfielder James Wood ($863,835), Arizona outfielder Corbin Carroll ($798,397), Houston pitcher Hunter Brown ($786,838), Philadelphia pitcher Cristopher Sánchez ($764,854), Cincinnati shortstop Elly De La Cruz ($717,479), Boston catcher Carlos Narváez ($703,007), Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela ($685,366) and Detroit outfielder Riley Greene ($665,470).

Crow-Armstrong, Skenes, Wood, Carroll, Brown, De La Cruz and Greene have been picked for Tuesday’s All-Star Game.

A total of 100 players will receive the payments, established as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement and aimed to get more money to players without sufficient service time for salary arbitration eligibility. The cutoff for 2025 was 2 years, 132 days of major league service.

Players who signed as foreign professionals are excluded.

Most young players have salaries just above this year’s major league minimum of $760,000. Crow-Armstrong has a $771,000 salary this year, Skenes $875,000, Wood $764,400 and Brown $807,400.

Carroll is in the third season of a $111 million, eight-year contract.

As part of the labor agreement, a management-union committee was established that determined the WAR formula used to allocate the bonuses after awards. (A player may receive only one award bonus per year, the highest one he is eligible for.) The agreement calls for an interim report to be distributed the week before the All-Star Game.

Distribution for awards was $9.85 million last year, down from $11.25 million in 2022 and $9.25 million in 2023.

A player earns $2.5 million for winning an MVP or Cy Young award, $1.75 million for finishing second, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth or fifth or for making the All-MLB first team. A player can get $750,000 for winning Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second or for making the All-MLB second team, $350,000 for third in the rookie race, $250,000 for fourth or $150,000 for fifth.

Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. topped last year’s pre-arbitration bonus pool at $3,077,595, and Skenes was second at $2,152,057 despite not making his big league debut until May 11. Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson was third at $2,007,178.

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