Andrei Vasilevski is a big reason why Tampa Bay Lightning will play in the NHL conference finals again. Tampa Bay can be described as the toughest NHL dynasty of modern times.
Goalkeepers have rarely been brought up when talking about the best hockey players in the world. Now, for good reason, you can do that. Russian watchman at Tampa Bay Lightning Andrei Vasilevski ended another NHL playoff series at an incomprehensible goalie clinic. The fourth win over Florida came off with 49 fight zeroes.
And here, incredibly, there was nothing new in Vasilevsky’s case.
The Russian has played six zero games in his previous 7 playoffs. A year ago, Vasilevski finished every playoff series in the playoffs. The cut-off games in the previous ten playoff series can hold six zero games with a rebound percentage of 98.4.
Although Tampa is known as perhaps the toughest star cream of its time, its goalkeeper is probably the brightest of the stars.
– Yes, playing Tampa shows that they have the best mill on the planet. They are able to play constantly at the borders, relying on their brasserie, Sports Expert Ismo Lehkonen says.
Goalkeeper who played 159 NHL matches in Tampa and Calgary Karri Rämö takes the debate even further.
– The dizziness here is that 27-year-old Vasilevski is just coming of age. After all, a pretty monster was born here, Rämö begins.
– We’re talking about the goalkeeper who already has two Stanley Cups, the Best Goalkeeper Award and the trophy for the most valuable player in the playoffs in the closet. We can certainly start talking about one of the best ever. Someone Martin Brodeur is in the same series, but it may be that in five years we won’t even have to discuss it anymore, Rämö continues.
Team play and goalkeeping play often go hand in hand, but Vasilevski has taken the egg-chicken conversation to a new level. Three goals conceded in four Florida series matches tells the level of a significant goalkeeper.
Tampa, who was occasionally in the lower nail, leaned time and time over to his goalkeeper, who didn’t disappoint. Again.
– There is no way to turn things around in such a way that the team in front has a reason for the goalkeeper ‘s brilliance. The team also plays according to their goalkeeper. There is strong credit through which choices are made. Some shots can be given because there is such a goalkeeper. That makes the game completely different, Rämö sees.
Still, the most muted is the way Vasilevski has closed the door in recent years, almost every time Tampa has had a chance to cut off a series of matches.
– Six zero games in seven cutouts is an incredible accomplishment. You’d think some lynx would have gone there with even a few more discs. Some goalkeepers are also such that they need big stakes cutting games to reach their best.
Technically, Rämö has a clear vision of what makes Tampa the best. R
– Technically, he has no weaknesses. It has all the pieces in place, we’re talking about the perfect package. He has suitably cover play and suitably active combat. At the same time, he is stiff and supple. The basic gameplay is at a really good level and outside of that he is able to stretch quite insanely, Rämö says.
At the Gretzky level
As a team, Tampa is emerging as one of the toughest dynasties in NHL history – at least if the train hits the tube in its third year at its terminus. The club now reached the conference finals for the seventh time in twelve years. From the first conference final team are included Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.
A Wayne Gretzky also reached the final of the conference in his career seven times.
In the previous eight years alone, the team has been to the conference finals six times and the Stanley Cup finals twice.
As a team, Tampa profiles itself as an incredible winning machine. The game, especially this spring, has often not been beautiful, but even more effective. An experienced team does not play with wins and does not leave the game in weak moments, but waits in turn. When a seat finally opens or a chance is given to a game of superiority, the game is beaten into a package.
– In the end, this is a pretty simple thing. These are all goal games where little things matter. Tampa does winning things with incredible precision, easy passes come to the shoulder, demolition discs are handled, discs are not played at important moments and there are four players under the game all the time, Lehkonen lists.
– When an opponent sets out to overshoot, they have one running through.
The small things Lehkonen talks about are really in Tampa’s possession. For example, a team has lost a puck less than seven times per hour it plays. The reading is the third lowest of the remaining teams. At the same time, it has blocked the most shots and tackled the second most.
– There were a lot of big blocks in the Florida series as well. There’s a goalkeeper who catches everything he sees. Then, when the field of vision is covered, there are guys to block everything possible. It is certain that that ate Florida in the series, Rämö says.
You can find it in the depths
In addition to this, the depth of the material at Tampa is still at an incredible level this spring.
In the Toronto series, for example, the winning goal in the stand-alone game was basically recorded for a player in the triple circuit Nick Paulille. The winning goals in the Florida series went Pierre-Edouard Bellemarelle, To Ross Colton, To Erik Cernak and To Patrick Maroon. There were no winning goals in the names of the expensive star players.
Colton shares the team’s top spot in the playoffs with the 37-year-old Corey Perryn with five hits. Tampa won four matches in the tube against the regular season winner with 13-3 goals and even without his first center Brayden Pointia. “Next man up” thinking is not a buzzword in Tampa.
– Why are the bottom chains playing well there, Lehkonen asks and answers himself.
– Because they skate full all the time. Their job is to bring energy in there and that’s what they do. If they ever stop, it’s usually for tackling. Florida didn’t get anything from its bottom chains, Lehkonen replies.
The train is pounding. It punches in a way that allows you to win your third consecutive championship. The last time it was in the NHL was by the New York Islanders in the early 1980s. There is a historic and completely exceptional era at hand for one club.
The second round of the NHL playoffs is underway. Tampa Bay has so far been the only team to make its way to the conference finals, the top four.