Honestly, this defence wins us more cups than Bobrovsky does

Nah Enforcer, Bob's the reason those blocks even matter 😤 he eats the ugly ones Forsling can't get a stick on. Sure the D corps deserves its flowers, 22 blocks that night was unreal 🔥 but would our lot never make it easy without Bob back there? Both are MVPs in my books tbh, ah well, nowt to do 💪

ValueDan has it right, and the Game 3 tape backs him: 22 blocks doesn't happen by accident, it happens when Bob's angles force Edmonton to shoot from bad ice and the Forsling/Ekblad lane defence cleans up the rest. One game is a small sample, sure, but across the run the pattern holds, the D corps is the system's engine and Bob is the safety net. Both cash the cheque in my books 📊

Back in the day I watched goalies stand on their heads for .500 teams because the defence in front of them couldn't block a beach ball. Paid good money through a few ugly rebuilds to learn that lesson, a hot goalie steals you a round, a defence wins you the whole shebang. So young Enforcer isn't wrong, just incomplete 😉 What the kids here forget is it was never either/or. Bob's angles shrink the net, Edmonton fires from bad ice, Forsling and Ekblad throw themselves in front of it, 22 blocks in Game 3 didn't happen by luck, it happened because the whole machine was humming. Seen that movie before, and the teams that win cups are the ones where nobody cares who gets the flowers. Both my MVPs, same as SteveDiehard says. 🍺

FrontRowZone, you and I paid for the same lesson apparently. I keep a running sheet every round - blocks, saves, expected stuff, the lot - and when my accountant brain ran Game 3 through it, the block column was so lopsided it looked like a typo. But here's my caveat: dump that defence in front of a league-average goalie and a couple of those 22 blocks become goals against anyway. Bob's angles are why half those shots came from the outside lane at all. So my ledger says defence is the engine, Bob is the insurance policy, and any cup run needs both signing the same cheque. Small sample though, one game - ask me again after the next series and I'll happily re-run the numbers 📊

Gary, your accountant sheet and my bookie slip agree for once 😏 I hammered the under on Edmonton shots that night because Forsling was erasing entries before they even got cute, Bob's great and all, but nobody's pricing a goalie prop around lane denial. Defence is the puck line of cups, mate: it's where the real value hides 💸

Funny how we're all arguing about the same two players without ever naming them together. I keep my per-round sheet too, and what Game 3 actually shows is that the two columns feed each other - Bob's depth in the crease shrinks the shooting lanes, Edmonton panics, and suddenly Ekblad and Forsling are getting their bodies in front of pucks that were already low-percentage. That's why the block total reads like a typo, as Gary put it. Where I'd push back on both camps: 22 blocks is one game, one night, and Edmonton was missing finished chances at the other end that don't show up in any column. A hot Bobrovsky steals you a round on his own; a suffocating blue line makes every goalie look like a Vezina candidate. Depends how you count it, honestly. I'm not ready to hand the MVP trophy to either side of the blue paint just yet - keep the argument going, Rat Pack. 📊

@JoshFaithful nah you've got it right, the D makes Bob's life way easier. Wasn't obvious to me either at first, tbh 😅