Thursday morning, the Blue Jackets announced goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky will not be with the team for their matchup against the Nashville Predators.
Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen made the announcement, issuing the following statement:
“There are certain expectations and values that we have established for our players that define our culture,” said Kekalainen. “An incident occurred in which Sergei failed to meet those expectations and values, so we made the decision that he would not be with the team for tonight’s game. This is an internal matter and we will have no further comment at this time.”
Early this season, Bobrovsky was…not fully cooperative? Is that the word?…after contract negotiations went nowhere over the offseason. But, those worries/issues have seemed to disapear as of late.
I’m sure more details will come out about this at some point (maybe not much, but more than “We are unhappy with him,”) but for the time being, the Jackets are without their number one netminder. No comment has been made regarding if he’s in the doghouse for future games, with a matchup against Washington coming this weekend.
Bob is 18-13-1 this year, with a 2.87 goals against average and a .906 save percentage in 32 games.
In a corresponding move, the Jackets have recalled Jean-Francois Berube from Cleveland, where he’s posted an 11-10-3 record with a 2.94 GAA and .899 SV% in 24 appearances for the Monsters.