Andrei Vasilevsky will remember the outgoing calendar year for a long time. Although the Russian goalkeeper of the Tampa Bay Lightning will certainly not have as bright an impression of him as from the previous three years, when his team participated in the Stanley Cup finals three times in a row and won two of them. 2023 was a year of serious testing for one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
It all started back in April, when the Lightning suffered a painful playoff loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs, sending the Leafs past the first round for the first time in years. Then Vasilevsky’s play was called one of the reasons for the Lightning’s failure: they say, the Russian missed in such episodes in which they were accustomed to seeing reliable work from him. In simple words, it didn’t help. But Andrei thereby showed that he, too, is not a robot, but, first of all, a person who tends to make mistakes and go through periods of decline.
Difficulties continued in the offseason – just before the start of the new NHL season, Vasilevsky was diagnosed with an injury. Initially, Tampa thought that it was not serious, but later the opinion on this matter changed. In September, the Russian underwent surgery: he had a microdiscectomy due to a hernia in the lumbar back.
“”The injury is not so much related to hockey as to the gym. A stupid injury, it could have been avoided. All because of this bodybuilding… Such I already had it. I didn’t act very smartly, putting too much pressure on myself,” Vasilevsky explained the situation.
Due to the injury and subsequent treatment, the Russian goalkeeper was out of action for two months, which was an unpleasant surprise for Tampa before the start of the season. Jonas Johansson and Matt Tomkins had to replace Vasilevskiy. The first, of course, to a greater extent: the Swede played in 17 out of 20 matches. Johansson’s workload was colossal, and although the Lightning are sincerely grateful to him for his work, he, like the entire team, cannot boast of beautiful statistics. He has 490 saved shots out of 548 (89.4%) and 58 missed goals. By the way, in terms of goals conceded, the Lightning occupy one of the last places in the entire league and are on the same level as the main losers of the season. That is why Vasilevsky’s return is a very important event for Tampa. With such a master behind us, the confidence of the whole team will be much higher.
“”He hasn't played since April. I know that he can't wait to play. A lot of work has been done for his return, Andrei himself was very careful in his preparation. That's his style. He worked as hard as he could. The date for his return was marked on the calendar, and we are very pleased that we have successfully reached this day.”John CooperHead Coach, Tampa Bay Lightning< br>
A kind of red day of the calendar was released on November 24 (Moscow time – November 25) – a day after Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in the United States. Quite symbolic considering the meaning of the holiday itself. And John Cooper, in his style, immediately threw Vasilevskiy into the heat, naming him the starting goalie for the match against the Carolina Hurricanes, which is one of the most shooting teams in the league and is among the top contenders for the 2024 Stanley Cup. And at first, the “hurricanes” confirmed their status. But if only they knew who would actually be in the fire…
During the first three minutes, both teams played without a center, chasing the puck from goal to goal, but without accurate shots. Only in the fourth minute did the Hurricanes force Vasilevskiy into the game, while Russian counterpart Antti Raanta stood completely idle. The Canes' Finnish goalkeeper was disturbed only once during the entire first period! Vasilevsky made the save after Carolina’s eighth shot on target, missing from Stefan Noesen.
Statistically, everything was logical. But only for the first 20 minutes of the game. Subsequently, statistics and the game itself took completely different paths. Just consider these facts: Carolina had 24 shots on target the entire game, Tampa had 14, but the game ended with the Lightning winning 8-2. Eight! Two! The Lightning shot 57.1%, the best single-game mark in NHL history. No one has ever seen such humiliation.
His friend, comrade and teammate Nikita Kucherov was especially happy about Andrei Vasilevsky’s return to the big game. The Tampa forward has great respect for Vasilevsky and does not miss the slightest chance to let the public know that he considers Andrei the best goalkeeper in the world.
The long-awaited comeback of the Russian Nikita was celebrated enchantingly: the Lightning star scored and participated in six of the team’s eight goals. Kucherov has two goals and four assists! Nikita became the first forward in the history of the club to score six points in one match. And in general, in the modern history of Russia, no one has ever managed to play a match in the NHL so effectively. Before Nikita Kucherov, only Sergei Makarov scored 6+ points per game, but this happened even before the official collapse of the USSR: in February 1990, the famous Soviet hockey player scored 7 points in a game against the Edmonton Oilers. Therefore, it can be argued that Kucherov is the first Russian to make six effective actions in one NHL match.
Right now, Kuch is single-handedly the NHL's leading sniper and leading scorer of the season. The Russian forward only needed 20 championship matches to reach and overcome the 30-point mark. Now he has 15 goals and 20 assists. Over the past 18 seasons, Nikita became just the fourth NHL player to score 35 or more points in his first 20 regular-season games. Previously, this was achieved by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl from the Edmonton Oilers (who would doubt it?) and Kucherov's teammate Steven Stamkos.
Nikita himself, by the way, spoke to reporters after the match, but very modestly. As usual, not an ounce of admiration for myself. But he didn’t regret making happy comments about Vasilevsky.
“”We didn’t play very well in the first period, but in the second 20 minutes we got several chances for a power play, and it was successful. This gave us impetus. I think in “We looked better later on. Vasilevskiy? He was good. So good, as if he had never missed a game. I'm very happy for him. I'm glad that he got his first win of the season. We're all happy to have him back,” Kucherov said.
And we are happy too!
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