The Training Overhaul That Got Stanley Cup WInning Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky Back on Top

With Sergei Bobrovsky back in the Stanley Cup Final a second straight year, coming off an impressive 32-save shutout in Game 1 and again finalist for the Vezina Trophy, an award he’s won twice, InGoal Magazine felt now is the perfect time to re-publish this September 3, 2019 piece from Cat Silverman detailing the martial-arts based overhaul that helped him back to the top of the league after years of struggling with lower-body injuries.

Bobrovsky has continued to work with the coaches responsible for this resurgence — trainer Sami Karjalainen and goaltending coach Hannu Nykvist — since this article first appeared on our old website, and while a few others have written about their relationship since, none have focused in on the goalie-specific details as well as Silverman, who also told it first.

Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky spent three weeks in August working out at the Finnish Ice Hockey Association’s main training facility in Vierumäki, a small village about 120 kilometers north of Helsinki in Finland’s southern region.
This was the fourth straight summer Bobrovsky, who turns 31 on Sept. 20, worked closely with the Finnish-born duo of trainer Sami Karjalainen and goaltending coach Hannu Nykvist, embracing their holistic approach in the hopes of ending the groin injuries that had previously plagued his career.

It’s working.

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