It took Andrei Vasilevskiy half a month to grab his initial victory in the current NHL regular season. The Tampa Bay Lightning began their campaign on October 10th, and in the initial fortnight, the Russian netminder played five games, with his squad losing every single one.
The statistics for the Vezina Trophy recipient were disheartening, yet the goals conceded stemmed less from his personal errors and more from Tampa’s exceptionally shaky defensive play. Certainly, there were moments where Vasilevskiy’s skill could have salvaged the situation, but assigning the team’s entire slump to him would be generally unfair.
On October 27th, Andrei finally broke the grim streak. He turned away 18 out of 19 shots against the Vegas Golden Knights, as the “Bolts” secured an overtime victory. This was followed by two more successful outings, propelling Vasilevskiy past Nikolai Khabibulin in total regular season wins, placing him outright third among Russian goaltenders in NHL history.
November brought an injury epidemic that plagued the “Lightning.” Early in the month, the team lost key defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman, and now the third defensive pillar, Erik Cernak, has also been sidelined. Such significant personnel losses should have caused Vasilevskiy’s numbers to plummet again. However, it appears he has hit such a groove that he’s capable of carrying this team nearly single-handedly.
Under these exceptionally challenging circumstances, the Russian is displaying remarkable resilience. In November, he participated in nine matches, suffering only two defeats. Across Tampa’s last five consecutive wins, Vasilevskiy maintained a staggering 97% save percentage—a phenomenal figure given the defensive gaps.
Furthermore, the contest versus the Philadelphia Flyers netted him his first shutout of the season, as Andrei denied all 20 shots directed at his net. This “clean sheet” against the “Flyers” marked the 41st regular season shutout of his NHL career, bringing him level with Semyon Varlamov in this metric.
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In practically every game, Andrei emerges as one of the standout figures. In the recent showdown against Calgary, he stopped 32 of 33 shots and earned the first star in a game that ended in a dominant 5-1 victory for his team.
Who can say where “Tampa” would be right now without the crucial saves from the Russian goaltender and the offensive prowess of the team’s leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov? Despite all the adversity, the “Bolts” are managing to hold a top-two position in the East, having amassed 30 points from 23 contests.
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