"He knows he's needs to be better in the playoffs. He will be better. I'm convinced about it," general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said Monday at Nationwide Arena. "He's that driven. He's always looking for ways to get better. I know that he wants to get better at a time it counts the most. I'm 100 percent confident he will get over that hump."
John Davidson, president of hockey operations and a former NHL goalie, knows what Bobrovsky is going through.
"My first playoff experience, ironically, was for [the St. Louis Blues] against Pittsburgh, and I wasn't very good," Davidson said. "I pride myself on being a good playoff player after that, but I had to go through that and learn."
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella often refers to Bobrovsky as their backbone, so the 28-year-old goaltender knows expectations of him are high, particularly in the playoffs.
"I'm going to deal with it and move on," Bobrovsky said Saturday, less than 48 hours after Columbus was eliminated. "So I will analyze that, what I should do better and what I should keep, and I will do better next year."
The Blue Jackets hope to get more from Saad down the stretch and into the playoffs in 2017-18. The 24-year-old had 53 points (24, goals, 29 assists) for a second consecutive season but 21 in 47 games after Jan. 1. He had one goal and two assists in the five games against the Penguins.
Tortorella came close to benching Saad for a game in the regular season, and then played him for two shifts totaling 1:45 in the third period of Game 1 against Pittsburgh.
"When you see his best game and his average game, there's too big of a gap," Kekalainen said. "When he's at his best, he can be a dominant force in the League. We expect that 82 times a year, there's no question about it. At Christmastime, he was the leading scorer in the National Hockey League 5-on-5. That's something that's encouraging."