Bobrovsky helps relief efforts, hopes Panthers can rebound after pause

Sergei Bobrovsky's motivation was simple.

"I tried to do the right thing," he said.
The goalie signed a seven-year contract with the Florida Panthers as an unrestricted free agent July 1.
After the NHL paused the season March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus,
he donated $100,000 to BB&T Center part-time employees
affected by event postponements. Teammates matched that as a group. Ownership contributed money too.
"The workers in the arena, they're a big part of our event, and they're a big part of our support, and there was the risk for them to lose their job and don't have the possibility to feed their family," Bobrovsky said Tuesday. "Right now, it's a tough time for everybody, for the whole world and for hockey as well."
Bobrovsky also donated thousands of N95 masks to South Florida hospitals, as New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin and New York Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov did in their markets.
He said that they wanted "to make sure that the first responders have the right masks" and that "it's good to support those people."
If you know Bobrovsky, you know he looks for the positive in everything. This situation is no different, from a human or a hockey standpoint.
Neither Bobrovsky nor the Panthers were living up to their high expectations before the pause.
Bobrovsky, who won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goalie in 2013 and 2017 with the Columbus Blue Jackets, was 23-19-6 with a 3.23 goals-against average, a .900 save percentage and one shutout.
The Panthers, who signed Bobrovsky as part of a push to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four seasons, were not in a playoff spot.
"The numbers not there," Bobrovsky said. "It wasn't easy season for me. It was new team, new coach, new surrounding. Everything is new."

Obviously, the pause is not ideal, especially for a goalie trying to find his game.
"Yeah, for a goalie it's a little bit harder to train alone, especially [off] the ice," Bobrovsky said. "You need somebody to shoot on you. You need to see the puck, to read the players and stuff like that. At this point, at this moment, I don't have that possibility, so I can only build my body to be strong, to be fast, to be quick."
But this is a chance to rest and reset before, hopefully, the stretch resumes.
"Everybody's in the same situation," Bobrovsky said. "You have to find a competitive [edge] and take advantage of this time. You maybe have a little bit more time to build up the strength or the speed or the cardio or whatever it is. It's another opportunity to get better also."
Bobrovsky missed the last four games because of a lower-body injury. But he was close to returning before the pause and has been able to train in a new home gym with exercise equipment.
His self-quarantine routine: wake up, eat breakfast, spend time outside, work out, eat lunch, rest, work out again, eat dinner and then maybe watch a movie. (His wife usually picks the movie.)
"It's time again to make sure that my body's ready to go and balance it up and build up from that," he said.
Bobrovsky understands the logistical problems as the NHL considers every conceivable scenario for resuming the season, if and when it is safe to do so. He talks to teammates on group chats and keeps in touch with Russian-speaking teammates Evgenii Dadonov and Aleksander Barkov.
"Everybody don't know what's going to happen, when we're going to play and stuff like that," he said. "We'll see what's going to happen. I think from the League standpoint, it's a big headache for them also, how to organize, how to approach this situation."
He does not want the NHL to jump straight into a 16-team tournament for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Of course not.
The Panthers (35-26-8) are three points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division and three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes and the Blue Jackets, who are tied in points for the two wild cards into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Florida has 13 games left.
"It's lots of games, and we're right in the mix, and we have the opportunity to be in there," Bobrovsky said. "If they just cut us off, I don't think it's fair."
It ain't over yet.
"It's all in our hands," Bobrovsky said. "The most important thing, it's team success, and we have the possibility to get into the playoffs, and that's the really important thing for me as well."
NHL.com staff writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report.