Nabokov has guided both Cup goalies
Evgeni Nabokov had just finished one of his first seasons in North America as a San Jose Sharks goalie prospect in the late 1990s and was back in his hometown in Kazakhstan for the summer.
There, a friend of his, a coach, asked Nabokov to speak to a group of young goalies who were gathering for a couple of days to hone their skills. One of them was a teenager named Anton Khudobin, who is also from Ust-Kamenogorsk.
“You know, when you’re meeting a 13-year-old kid, you don’t know that this is Anton Khudobin,” said Nabokov, the Sharks’ goalie coach and their all-time leader in several statistical categories.
“It was funny enough where Anton, after he came over to North America, he has been talking about that all the time. I’m like, “You were there?’ It’s kind of a funny story that I don’t remember a ton and he remembers everything.”
Nabokov is definitely paying attention these days as Khudobin, now 34, attempts to lead the Dallas Stars to their second- ever Stanley Cup. They’ll have to get past the Tampa Bay Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy, the 2019 Vezina Trophy winner that Nabokov knows well and has influenced off the ice.
Nabokov stays in touch w ith both Vasilevskiy and Khudobin, who have shined in the postseason and are legitimate candidates for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.
Vasilevskiy, 26, had a sparkling 1.82 goals against average and a ,931 save percentage in his first 19 postseason games before the Cup final began. Khudobin’s numbers were about has good with a .920 save percentage and a 2.62 goals against average, although he has had to stop more high danger scoring chances.
In Game 1, Khudobin stopped 35 of 36 shots — including 22 in the third period — as the Stars went on to a 4-1 win.