Sergei Bobrovsky Commits to World Championships

Sergei Bobrovsky — despite having a fairly good season on a personal level — didn’t see his year go the way he likely would have hoped.

Injuries to the Columbus Blue Jackets throughout the year left the team down 508 man-games lost throughout their regular season campaign, resulting in an exclusion from the post-season despite a stellar finish down the final stretch of spring. Bobrovsky, 26, was one of the players who contributed to this — but now that he seems fully healthy again, he’s headed for the World Championships in Prague.

The team confirmed his inclusion on the Russian national team roster on Thursday morning — although the teams haven’t officially finalized their lineups yet (and won’t until Friday morning), the club confirmed that both Bobrovsky and team right wing Artem Anisimov would be on the lineup to represent Russia.

Anisimov is a tenured veteran with the Russian national team — he’s got a WC gold, two silvers (one with the men’s world team and one in the World Junior Championships), a bronze in the 2008 WJC, and fifth place finishes at both the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2006 U18 World Juniors in Sweden.

Bobrovsky, who went undrafted, has had a bit less experience on the international stage. He’s competed in net for Russia in one of each tournament — the U20 World Juniors, the World Championships, and the Winter Olympics (and all recently). The 2013 Vezina winner, though, is far from unprepared to back his team — after an impressive year spent in net yet again, Sergei Bobrovsky could be quite the useful piece over in the Czech Republic.