Tampa Bay Lightning Year In Review: Evgeni Nabokov

The off-season is about to come to an end, but before we close the books on the 2014-15 once and for all, let’s take a final look back at the season of former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

For many years, the simple mention of the word goaltender would send chills down the spine of any Tampa Bay Lightning fan. To say that there have been some inconsistencies behind the net may just be the understatement of the decade.

After a long and arduous journey, the Lightning had found someone who could stand the test of time (and many shots fired at his face) in goaltender Ben Bishop. The question now became, who would stand behind him as his backup?

The Lightning needed someone who they could call in at any point and would be ready to hold down the fort against all opposition; someone who had played at an elite level, but would fit within the Lightning’s budget. This is where former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Evgeni Nabokov came in.

Nabokov was originally drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the 9^th Round (219^th overall) in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. In the ten seasons he would spend with the Sharks, he would come to be one of the most successful goaltenders that the franchise would ever see. Many of his records still stand today.

Evgeni Nabokov would spend three seasons with the New York Islanders before he would eventually make his way to the Tampa Bay Lightning. If there was anyone who could hold down the net in lieu of Bishop, it would certainly be someone with the kind of veteran knowledge and leadership that someone like Nabokov could provide.

Unfortunately, things don’t always turn out the way that we plan them. Rather than taking the Tampa Bay Lightning by storm, he seemed to fizzle under the bright lights and tesla coils of the Amalie Arena. In the 2014-15 season, Nabokov would lace up his skates and play in just 11 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In that amount of time, he would earn a 3-6-2 record with a Goals Allowed Average of a dismal 3.15 and a Save Percentage of .882.

In his defense, there were a few things playing against him last season. The biggest thing is his lack of playing time. As the old adage goes, “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” As was the case for a bulk of the season, Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop was on fire. The more than the Lightning continued to win, the more and more minutes Bishop would get on the ice.

While we will digress that they are all professional athletes, it is incredibly hard for a player to be at their absolute best when they get very minimal time in real-world situations. Practice is all well and good, but it has nothing on watching you opponent sail across the ice at you with the sole intention of making your day miserable.

Also, and maybe it’s just us, but it almost (and we do mean almost) seems as if the team didn’t play quite as hard in front of Nabokov as they did in front of Bishop. We are by no means insinuating that this was in any way, shape, or form intentional, but if you go back and watch the games Nabokov played in, you can most certainly see a bit of hesitation from the entire team.

No matter what the cause was, it was clear that something had to be done. Whether it was sidelining Nabokov and putting more pressure on Bishop, or simply finding a replacement for Nabokov, the Tampa Bay Lightning needed to make a decision fast if they wanted to stay on the fast track to the postseason.

It wasn’t long until the Tampa Bay Lightning had made their decision and called up Syracuse Crunch netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy to play as backup for Ben Bishop and placed Nabokov on waivers. After clearing waivers, Nabokov’s future seemed incredibly uncertain. Would the Lightning actually send a player like Nabokov to the Crunch to serve out the remainder of his contract or would they further explore their options?

It seemed as if Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman had the latter in mind for the veteran netminder. On February 9^th, Yzerman announced that the Lightning had traded Evgeni Nabokov to the team that helped him make a name for himself, the San Jose Sharks, in exchange for “future considerations.”

Just two days later, Nabokov would officially announce his retirement from the National Hockey League. Spending 14 seasons in the National Hockey League is no small feat, and even though his journey may not have had a storybook ending, it did end exactly as it should; in the place where it all began.

Sometimes things don’t turn out quite the way that we expect them to, but at the end of the day when you have people like Yzerman and Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper leading the charge, fans like us can rest easy that they have the team’s best interest at heart and know just what they are doing.

What are your opinions on the season of former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Evgeni Nabokov? Do you think things would have turned out differently had he been given more playing time, or do you think this story would have had the same ending? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Next: Can The Tampa Bay Lightning Survive The Potential Loss of Steven Stamkos?

The off-season is about to come to an end, but before we close the books on the 2014-15 once and for all, let’s take a final look back at the season of former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

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