Player Discussion: Andrei Vasilevskiy

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[Zwui21]

Vasi stats are absolutely nuts:

 

[FinnLightning26]

He has looked better than ever. Maybe that Cup win unlocked a new level with him. He seems calmer than before.

 

[Val]

Tampa has to give Vasy to Seattle next season. Lightning are too strong. It's not fair!

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Vasi stats are absolutely nuts:

The only real concern when you see stuff like this is that there's no real way to improve from there. Even Hasek wouldn't be able to maintain numbers that absurd (although he sure tried). Thankfully, it's not like Vasi needs to be on that level for the Lightning to succeed come the playoffs.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[Stormbreaker]

Relative to age, Vasilevskiy is the best NHL goalie in 30-plus years

 

[Sky04]

Relative to age, Vasilevskiy is the best NHL goalie in 30-plus years

Yeah he's going to go down as a great. With the way he trains and his competitiveness he's not going to fall off on the back-half of his career like Price. Goalies should be peaking in their late 20's/early 30's and lots of goalies play well into the mid 30's. Fleury is 36 this season, Hasek wasn't even a full time goalie until he was 29.

 

[Zwui21]

Yeah he's going to go down as a great. With the way he trains and his competitiveness he's not going to fall off on the back-half of his career like Price. Goalies should be peaking in their late 20's/early 30's and lots of goalies play well into the mid 30's. Fleury is 36 this season, Hasek wasn't even a full time goalie until he was 29.

What we are seeing currently isn't even Vasy's final form. Which is scary for all of our opponents lol

 

[The Macho King]

I think his GAA and his Save Percentage got worse last night.

f***ing scrub.

 

[Sky04]

I think his GAA and his Save Percentage got worse last night.

f***ing scrub.

Save % stayed the same, GAA increased by 0.01 Don't panic but he's already declining.

 

[The Macho King]

Save % stayed the same, GAA increased by 0.01 Don't panic but he's already declining.

Same at the thousandths place maybe, but if you go to the ten-thousandths place it dropped. He f***ing sucks.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

Same at the thousandths place maybe, but if you go to the ten-thousandths place it dropped. He f***ing sucks.

All the fault of @VinikToWinIt

 

[The Gongshow]

Has to be in the Vezina conversation right now.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

Has to be in the Vezina conversation right now.

He is the conversation.

 

[Point21]

Remember when alot of people thought we should have moved Vasy instead of Ben "made of glass" Bishop.. Pepperidge Farms remembers

 

[NatoGhost]

Remember when alot of people thought we should have moved Vasy instead of Ben "made of glass" Bishop.. Pepperidge Farms remembers

It was a gamble either way really. Went with the young up and comer but it doesn't always work out. Definitely happy with how it turned out! Bishop was a stud too just couldn't stay healthy.

 

[VinikToWinIt]

Has to be in the Vezina conversation right now.

Vasy and Fleury are a clear 1A and 1B right now. 0.939 and 0.942 rspectively, and the next goalie with at least 10GP is sitting at 0.926.

 

[Sky04]

It was a gamble either way really. Went with the young up and comer but it doesn't always work out. Definitely happy with how it turned out! Bishop was a stud too just couldn't stay healthy.

No kidding, it was a gamble either way considering the position. Look at Pittsburgh with Murray and Fleury.

Vasi was damn shaky at the time we moved on, the decision was only easier cause Bishop had a down year as well. Hindsight is 20/20 but Bishop had a Vezina calibre season in 2019 along with a Conn Smythe worthy run in the playoffs the year we got bounced in round 1, largely in part due to goaltending.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Remember when alot of people thought we should have moved Vasy instead of Ben "made of glass" Bishop.. Pepperidge Farms remembers

I'm glad with the way things have worked out, but lets not forget that Bishop was an absolute playoff warrior and that Vasi had a couple very underwhelming playoff series in a row between the 2018 ECF and 2019 ECQF. Not to say he was sole to blame at all, I'm not making that argument, but his shaky goaltending sure didn't help matters either. Giving up a soft goal 62 seconds into Game 7 after having been shutout for the last five periods of hockey is not something that's going to help a team lacking confidence to score goals, and that's exactly what happened against the Capitals.

In the long-run, it looks like it might've been the right decision. I'm glad he did deliver a monster postseason performance. You only need to go back a couple pages to see how wrong I ended up sounding. But this is definitely not one of those "clearly right and clearly wrong choice" situations. Never has been and it isn't now. We have no idea how 2018 or '19 might've turned out with Bishop as our starting goaltender. Obviously there's a great chance he would've suffered an injury at some point. Part of the risk.

 

[Hoek]

I have a hard time taking Vasi to task for 2018 considering he was the only reason we made it to a Game 7 in the first place. At some point, the other guys needed to show up, and they didn't outside a couple hot power play performances. Same with that ECF against the Pens

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

tldr: he good

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Despite the short offseason, Vasilevskiy has picked up where he left off. He's 18-3-1 in 22 games and is second in the NHL in save percentage (.932), third in GAA (1.90) and is tied for third in shutouts (three) among goalies to play at least 10 games.

"You can give him the first, second and third (place) votes for the Vezina (Trophy)," NBC Sports analyst Brian Boucher said earlier this month of the award given to the best goalie in the NHL. "Just from a pure talent standpoint he is the best goalie in the League. Whether he wins the Vezina or not, nobody matches up to his capabilities in net. No chance. Some people have talent and never live up to the expectations. He's living up to the expectations. We're not clamoring for more. We're wondering if he can get more, but we're not clamoring for it. We see greatness."

A panel of 17 NHL.com writers agree with Boucher and expect Vasilevskiy to win the Vezina Trophy for the second time in three seasons (2018-19). Vasilevskiy finished first with 78 points and got 10 first-place votes to edge Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights (73 points; seven first-place votes). Fleury leads the NHL in GAA (1.87) and save percentage (.933), and is tied for first in shutouts with four.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]