Tampa Bay Lightning Year In Review: Andrei Vasilevskiy
As the Tampa Bay Lightning prepare to turn their attention to the 2016-17 season, let’s take a quick look back at the 2015-16 season of Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The off-season is quickly coming to a close, and soon Tampa Bay Lightning fans will be flooding the halls of the Amalie Arena preparing to cheer their heads off for their favorite team. Before both the team and fans alike turn their attention to the 2016-17 season, let’s take a quick look at the 2015-16 season of Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The story of Andrei Vasilevskiy is almost a painful one to tell; not because he hasn’t done his part to be a valuable member of the team, but it almost seems like the cards were stacked against him from the very start of the season.
Just about one month before the start of the 2015-16 season, it was determined that Andreu Vasilevskiy would be forced to undergo vascular surgery to remove a blood clot found near the Russian netminder’s collarbone. The aforementioned surgery would force Vasilevskiy to not only miss the whole of the preseason, but also the first full month of the season.
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It wasn’t until November 1st when Andrei Vasilevskiy would make his return to the ice after undergoing surgery. The Tampa Bay Lightning would emerge victoriously over the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in Vasilevskiy’s return. Vasy would stop 32 of 35 shots for a Save Percentage of .914.
After two months of play with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bolts would elect to reassign Vasilevskiy to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Some saw this as a punishment for his losing record; however, the truth of the matter is actually quite the opposite.
Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop was both healthy and ready to give 110 percent on the ice. Keeping that in mind, Vasilevskiy was seeing very little actual ice time. As you can imagine, this is not a good thing for a player who is expected to be ready to go at any moment.
Rather than allowing Vasilevskiy to collect dust on the bench, the Lightning elected to send him to Syracuse where he could see some real ice time and be ready when his name is called to guard the pipes for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This brings us to the point where things started to get really crazy for the 22-year-old netminder. On December 31st, Andrei Vailevskiy backstopped the Syracuse Crunch to a 4-2 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. When Vasy made is back to the locker room, he was given the news that his wife Ksenia had just given birth to their first child.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the very next day Vasilevskiy would find himself on a plane back to Tampa Bay as he had been recalled by the Tampa Bay Lightning. If that’s not one heck of a rollercoaster couple of days, we don’t know what is.
Unfortunately, the season was not all wine and roses for Vasilevskiy. When the final numbers were tallied, Vasilevskiy would end the season with an 11-10-0 record along with a Goals Against Average of 2.76 and a Save Percentage of .910.
There are some who believe the Lightning should move on and find another, more experienced goaltender to backup Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop. On the other side of the coin, there are those who thoroughly believe Vasilevskiy is the future of Tampa Bay Lightning goaltending.
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From where things stand right now, we find ourselves in the middle of the road on this one. There were more than a few games over the course of the 2015-16 season where Vasilevskiy allowed his inexperience to show and lost a couple of games that should have been sure-fire winners.
At the same time, you can’t exactly expect magic out of a player who spends a majority of the season on the bench. Yes, sending Vasilevskiy down to Syracuse was an invaluable option that gave him some much-needed playing time, but let’s be real here for a minute…the level of play between the AHL and the NHL is very different.
In order for Vasilevskiy to truly perform and meet the standard set before him, he needs to play more minutes on NHL ice. We have a distinct feeling, with the Tampa Bay Lightning hungry for another chance to play for the Stanley Cup, Vasilevskiy will see much more play time; especially towards the end of the season.
This will give Vasilevskiy the play time he needs while also allowing the Tampa Bay Lightning to keep Ben Bishop healthy as the postseason nears. From where we’re sitting, this seems like a win/win situation for all.
There is a very good chance that Andrei Vasilevskiy could be the future of Tampa Bay Lightning goaltending. The 2016-17 season will be very telling of how this saga is going to play out.
Next: Tampa Bay Lightning Year In Review: Valtteri Filppula
Should Vasilevskiy shine in his opportunity, he may very well be handed the reins when Bishop’s contract expires at the conclusion of the season. If not, we may be looking at a whole new landscape when it comes to goaltending. Only time will tell how this epic saga will play out on the ice.