Sergei Bobrovsky – “The Next” Pelle Lindbergh or Nothing Like Him?

With any sport, it’s easy to fall into the trap of labeling young players or prospects as “the next” iteration of a former or current player.

Is Andrew Luck “the next” Peyton Manning?

Is Horace Spencer III “the next” LeBron James?

It’s a flawed mechanism for describing talent, but it works well at explaining to people why they should care about someone they may never have heard of otherwise.

As the youngest European goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers since Antero Niittymaki, Sergei “Bob” Bobrovsky has often been compared to former goaltender Per-Eric “Pelle” Lindbergh. Tim Panaccio even got Bernie Parent to say as much back in December 2010.

I never had the opportunity to follow Pelle’s exploits during his lifetime (age being a factor), but the excellent book “Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask” by Bill Meltzer and Thomas Tynander provides an in-depth look into the man that captured the Vezina Trophy in 1985 and the hearts of Philadelphians everywhere before his untimely death.

After reading it, I don’t think Sergei is “the next” Pelle Lindbergh, even though their paths share some similarities.

Pelle chose the Flyers as “his” NHL team when he was 11 years-old because he liked the look of the “P” logo. He discovered Parent after watching films of the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals and decided that he was going to be a Philadelphia Flyer at the ripe age of 15.

Bob’s boyhood idol was Martin Brodeur, but he told Yahoo’s blog Puck Daddy, “When I seriously started playing hockey I had no idols. I watched every goaltender I could, watch their game to figure out the best I could adopt from them.”

Pelle participated in three World Juniors Championships starting in 1977, the first year that the tournament was sanctioned by the IIHF. By 1979, he was unquestionably the best goaltender of the tournament, shutting out Team Canada 1-0 and nearly defeating Team Russia before finally finishing in 3^rd place.

Bobrovsky backstopped Team Russia in the 2008 World Juniors Championship, where they finished in 3^rd place. He helped stymie Team USA (led by James van Riemsdyk) with a 4-1 victory, where he may have first gained the attention of general manager Paul Holmgren.

Steve Whyno (formerly of Philly Sports Daily) reported last year that the Flyers considered drafting Bobrovsky in 2008. “We liked him. We actually talked about him – we had three second-round picks that year; we talked about him then,” Holmgren said, “[But] We’re afraid to take Russian players. I don’t think we’re the only team, because they’re very hard to get signed. You just lose sight of them.” Bobrovsky ultimately went undrafted.

Pelle was scouted by the Flyers and the Atlanta Flames following his WJC appearance.  The Flames ended up selecting London Knights goaltender Pat Riggin, allowing the Flyers to use their third round pick to select Pelle.

Pelle started the 1980-81 season with the Maine Mariners of the AHL after a dismal preseason.  He finished the season winning all the major AHL awards, though the team lost in the Calder Cup finals to the Adirondack Red Wings.

The following season, Pelle demanded a trade after not making the Flyers roster. General manager Keith Allen convinced him to be patient, and on November 1, 1981, he made his NHL debut with a 6-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. He would bounce back and forth between the two clubs for the remainder of the year.

Bobrovsky has never played a single AHL game.  After a strong preseason outing in 2010 and an unfortunate spinal injury to Michael Leighton, Bob made the Flyers line-up and opened the season with a 3-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  He has been with the team ever since.

While their paths may have some comparisons, their personalities, at first glance, couldn’t be more distinct. Bobrovsky has become known for being very hard-working, patient and quiet in his spare time. Lindbergh was anything but. He disliked practice (though his commitment improved over his years with the Flyers), he spurned competition from other goaltenders on the team and he had a penchant for playing with expensive toys and driving fast cars when he wasn’t at the rink.

From the previously mentioned Puck Daddy interview, Bobrovsky stated early on when asked if he thought he had made his case to be the team’s starter, “No, I don’t think so. And I don’t think it’s even appropriate to think this way. You have to prove in every game that your good play in the previous game was not just a fluke. You play a good game, and then it’s history. You have to prove yourself again. People can talk about the past, but no one can predict the future. No one knows how you’re going to play next… Prove that it was the right decision to trust you to be the starter again.”

Can anyone who was familiar with Pelle believe that he would ever say something like that? He may have been a charming, plucky, and astonishingly warm person, but he was also fiercely competitive and impatient.

Bobrovsky also stated in a more recent interview with Puck Daddy that he would never request a trade. When the Flyers brought in Ilya Bryzgalov and signed him to a nine-year contract, Bob took it in stride and believed he would just have to earn his starts.

“What I understood from last season is that if you play well, show the result, then you play for the first team. If not, you are benched. A contract is not playing, a person is.”

That is exactly what happened today when Peter Laviolette decided to start Bobrovsky over Bryzgalov in the 2012 Winter Classic.

Sergei Bobrovsky may be endearing himself to Philadelphia similarly to Pelle Lindbergh, but he is his own man, and he is creating a legacy all his own.