Goalie Anton Khudobin's confidence feeding a desperate Bruins team

Anton Khudobin is an entertaining and jovial goalie on and off the ice. His personality is similar to how he plays -- sort of all over the place. But when he’s playing with confidence, his teammate feed off that energy and that’s exactly what the Boston Bruins are experiencing right now.

He’s yet to lose in regulation this season and is 5-0-2 in eight games (seven starts). He helped the Bruins snap a recent four-game losing skid as Boston has won two in a row with starter Tuukka Rask watching from the bench. Teammate Riley Nash has seen these types of performance from Khudobin in the past.

They were teammates on the Carolina Hurricanes during the 2013-14 season when starter Cam Ward was injured and Khudobin was thrust into action. He played a career-high 36 games (34 starts) and finished with a 19-14-1 record, along with a 2.30 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. He had stretches of four-game winning streaks, including a period when he won seven of 10 starts.

“I don’t know if it’s that Russian swagger, or what it is, but he definitely has it,” Nash said. “It’s nice to see. It’s contagious. When guys are in front of him, if you know that he believes in himself, then you start to buy into it and believe in it and you play with a little more confidence in front of him.”



Khudobin has proven in his career he can be streaky.

After a dismal start to last season, Khudobin regained his confidence with a solid finish to 2016-17. He posted a six-game win streak from Feb. 11 to April 2 and those performances basically helped the Bruins earn a playoff berth and also saved his job in Boston for this season. It put him in the right frame of mind for the offseason and now he’s mentally, physically and emotionally producing at a time when the Bruins needed it.

“He’s pretty resilient,” Nash said. “Confidence-wise, he never losses that. He believes in himself through and through. He might go through a tough stretch, like the start of last year, but at the end of last year when we had some really tough games he came up huge. That just speaks to his unwavering confidence in himself. You can call it a ‘swagger’ or whatever, but he definitely has that, and as a goalie you need to. You can’t ever doubt yourself because you’re the last line of defense, you make one mistake and it looks bad on you. He just believes in himself.”

During training camp, Khudobin was asked if he would be able to handle the backup role this season because the Bruins needed a goalie to be successful in that role in order to spell Rask. Khudobin is showing he’s capable right now.

“I’ve always been saying, for me personally, the more I’m playing the better I’m feeling,” admitted Khudobin. “Right now maybe that’s the reason I’m playing more often. I’m in a rhythm, yeah.”

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy gets a smile on face when talking about Khudobin’s personality. Actually, every player in the room does too. The coach admits one of the reasons Khudobin is streaky is because of his personality.

“When he’s feeling it, and he’s more gut (instincts) than technical, things can go your way. When you’re not technically as good, and pucks start finding holes, maybe your gut leaves you and that’s when it goes the other way for him,” admitted Cassidy.

“He’s an upbeat guy, so maybe when he’s on that personality takes over in the net. When he’s not, he loses a bit of his swagger. When you’re a backup you don’t get a chance to work your way out of it when it goes south.

Cassidy hasn’t decided whether or not he’ll stick with Khudobin against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday at Prudential Center. It would make sense to stay the course, especially with the Bruins playing the two-time Stanley Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday at TD Garden, a game Rask will likely start.

“Cleary (Khudobin’s) played well,” Cassidy said. “We haven’t made our decision yet, so that tells you we want to make sure that we balance it right, but listen, he’s got a hand hot so we’ll look into that a little more (Tuesday).”

Maybe some believe there’s a goalie controversy, but that’s not the case for the Bruins. Rask is, and will be, the No. 1.

“Yes, absolutely,” Cassidy said.