Sergei Bobrovsky stepped onto the ice ahead of Gavin McKenna before the No. 1 pick’s solo rookie lap on Tuesday, leaving the 18-year-old without the empty sheet the tradition normally calls for. Toronto Maple Leafs supporters haven’t let it go, and some have now gone looking through the archives.
What they surfaced was a clip the Florida Panthers posted in December 2021, marking Cole Schwindt‘s rookie lap ahead of his NHL debut. Bobrovsky was Florida’s goaltender at the time, and he can be seen in the footage waiting in the player tunnel while Schwindt has the ice to himself.
“How come Bobrovsky didn’t interrupt this rookie lap, but interrupted McKenna’s?” one account asked, sharing the old footage.
Has Sergei Bobrovsky done this before?
Schwindt made his debut against Los Angeles on December 16, 2021, one of only three NHL games he played that season, and the footage suggests Bobrovsky had no difficulty holding back on that occasion. That undercuts the most obvious defense available to him, which is that goaltenders customarily lead their team onto the ice and that he was simply following a routine built over 14 seasons.
Fans have drawn their own conclusions about why the two nights went differently, and most of them are unflattering to his current employer.
“Probably had actual leaders in the room that shut that down,” one wrote.
“Simple, Bob actually liked his Florida teammates,” another said, while a third went blunter still: “Because the Leafs are a clown show and he knows it.”
READ MORE: Sergei Bobrovsky is taking heat over McKenna’s moment
None of that is anything more than guesswork. The mundane explanation still available is that Bobrovsky was making his own Maple Leafs debut on the same night, having signed a three-year deal on July 1, and that a lapse in an unfamiliar building is at least as plausible as a snub.
The player at the centre of it certainly wasn’t complaining. McKenna still got his ovation during player introductions with family in the crowd, and described the whole evening in glowing terms afterwards.
“Getting to have that rookie lap, seeing my family on the glass in warm-ups, hearing your name called in player intros, it’s all pretty special,” McKenna said. “There’s not much I’ll forget about this day.”
Toronto lost the game 3-2, with McKenna finishing minus-2 in 15:19 and Bobrovsky making 21 saves.
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