Five stats that explain Sergei Bobrovsky’s dominance over past 10 starts for Panthers

Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky put together yet another clinic in net on Saturday when he logged his fourth shutout of the season in a 4-0 win at the Detroit Red Wings.

Bobrovsky stopped all 21 shots he faced, including six high-danger shots and three off rebounds, although the goaltender as usual deflected the praise to his teammates in front of him.

“We have a good structure, and the guys believe in the structure, and they execute that with their heart and their soul,” Bobrovsky said. “That’s our backbone, and it doesn’t matter who is in the lineup; everybody works hard, and everybody puts everything on the table.”

It was Bobrovsky’s fourth shutout of the season and his latest dominant effort over the past month and a half.

Bobrovsky has held opponents to two goals or fewer over each of his past 10 starts, a franchise record. In that stretch includes a pair of shutouts. The Panthers are 9-1-0 in that span, the only defeat a 1-0 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes when Carolina scored its only goal with fewer than 20 seconds left in regulation.

Just how good has Bobrovsky been in that span? Let’s look at the numbers:

▪ .949: Bobrovsky has a .949 save percentage over his past 10 starts, stopping 279 of 294 shots he has faced since this streak began on Jan. 24. It’s the best mark in the league in that span among 18 goaltenders who have made at least 10 starts. The next best is .925 by the Buffalo Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

▪ .927: Bobrovsky’s save percentage on high-danger shots (shots that have a higher expectancy of resulting in goals) over the past 10 games is .927. He has given up just six goals on 82 high-danger shots. Among 18 goalies who have made at least 10 starts in that span, the second-best save percentage on high-danger shots belongs to the St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington ... at .889.

▪ 1.49: Bobrovsky has a 1.49 goals against average (goals per 60 minutes played) over these 10 games. Luukkonen is against the next closest contender to Bobrovsky, with a 2.08 goals against average — more than a half goal per game more than Bobrovsky.

▪ 2: Bobrovsky has a pair of shutouts in this 10-game stretch, one of two goaltenders with multiple shutouts in this span (also Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov, with one of those shutouts being against the Panthers).

▪ 13.51: According to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick, Bobrovsky over the past 10 games has 13.51 saves above average, defined as the difference between the goalie’s actual goals against and the amount of goals expected to be scored against a goaltender with the same number of shots against with the league average save percentage.