BATTALION BREAKDOWN: Sergei Bobrovsky

Battalion Breakdown is a closer look at the Blue Jackets' past season from a numerical standpoint, starting with the highest jersey number and counting down to the lowest. Today, BlueJackets.com examines goalie Sergei Bobrovsky's season and how it impacted Columbus in the 2017-18 campaign.
Sergei Bobrovsky
Number:72
Age:29
Birthdate:Sept. 20, 1988
Height/Weight:6-2, 182
Position:Goalie
Nickname: "Bob"
When the NHL Awards are presented this summer, Sergei Bobrovsky will not get the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goalie.
His stats dipped overall, after Bobrovsky won the Vezina for the second time in his career last year, but don't mistake his slight drop to mean he wasn't great again. Despite the Jackets' first-round exit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Bobrovsky had an impressive season.
He started a career-high amount of games, finished among the league's top five goalies in that category (third), plus wins (fifth) and shutouts (tied for fifth), and was outstanding during the team's 10-game winning streak in March. His solid play in net helped Columbus make a strong, late push to qualify for the playoffs, which was the first time the Jackets had ever done that in consecutive seasons.

Could "Bob" have done more in the playoffs to help Columbus make it out of the first round for the first time in franchise history?
Short answer: Yes.
The longer answer involves how often Bobrovsky was under duress during the series against the Washington Capitals, how strong he played despite that pressure and how many times he kept Columbus in games that could've been won prior to the Capitals' game-winning goals in Games 3 and 5.
The final three games weren't pretty for Bobrovsky by statistical measures, but they also weren't a carbon copy of his well-documented struggles against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In fact, looking back on this season gives a clear view of his worth in the crease for Columbus.
Bobrovsky remains one of the NHL's elite backstops, capable of jaw-dropping saves and stealing games, and the Blue Jackets have to feel confident in their goaltending situation heading into next season - the final one left on Bobrovsky's contract.
Here's a closer look at Bobrovsky's season, by the numbers, and how it impacted the Blue Jackets:
THE BREAKDOWN
65
Early in the season, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella compared Bobrovsky to a thoroughbred race horse, saying he didn't have concerns about wearing out the Russian goalie because of Bobrovsky's high fitness level. Backing up those claims, "Bob" was largely unphased despite making a career-high 65 starts, which ranked third in the NHL and was two more than his previous career-high of 63 in 2016-17. He also started all six playoff games.
37
Bobrovsky's win total dropped by four after notching a career-high 41 in 2016-17, but he still topped 30 wins for the fourth time in eight NHL seasons. Included in his 37 victories were three that Bobrovsky secured with dazzling saves late in games. The first was against a 2-on-0 rush in overtime Nov. 11 in Detroit, which he followed with lunging blocker save late in the third period three days later in Montreal. He also spoiled the Red Wings' night Mar. 9 at Nationwide Arena, making a huge blocker save against Darren Helm with time running out the third.
80.46
The stat-tracking website corsicahockey.com compiled player ratings for the 2017-18 regular season by compiling its various metrics into one rating number. Bobrovsky has a rating of 80.46, which ranks third among all NHL goalies this season. The only two backstops with higher ratings are Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights (80.53) and John Gibson of the Anaheim Ducks (81.32). Those are the only three with ratings of 80 or higher.
10
It wasn't all good news, statistically, for Bobrovsky. He also had some tough games, which happened more often than any other season in his NHL career. According to hockey-reference.com, which tracks a stat called "Really Bad Starts" (RBS), Bobrovsky had a career-high 10 RBS this season. The definition of RBS is a start where a goalie finishes the game without stopping at least 85 percent of shots faced. Bobrovsky's previous career-high for a single season was eight RBS in 2015-16, while his total this season was five more than 2016-17, when he won the Vezina Trophy.
.864
Bobrovsky's playoff performance can be divided into two distinct increments. In the first three games, he went 2-1-0 and helped the Blue Jackets win the first two games of the series in overtime on the road, stopping 123 of 133 shots for a .925 save percentage. In the final three games, Bobrovsky went 0-3-0, allowed 12 goals on just 88 shots and had an .864 save percentage. The biggest drain on his save percentage was Game 6, when Bobrovsky allowed five goals on 27 shots in the Capitals' series-clinching 6-3 victory Nationwide Arena.
23.1
Part of the reason Bobrovsky's numbers fell off against the Capitals can be attributed to the Blue Jackets being sent to the penalty box a lot. Being shorthanded so much contributed to Washington keeping the play in the Columbus end of the rink, which put Bobrovsky under a lot of pressure. The Blue Jackets had an average of 23.1 defensive-zone starts per game in the series, which means that many faceoffs per game happened right in front of Bobrovsky. Among all goalies who made a postseason appearance, only Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings faced more on average (24.7).