Typically, the short series between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning will likely allow us to witness the best performance of all time from one goaltender.
After a very difficult first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs, as if nothing had happened, the two -time Stanley Cup champions have completely stabbed the best offense in the last 27 years in the NHL. So they swept the Presidents ’Trophy winners, who scored 122 points on the season.
Panthers players can find comfort in the fact that in 2019, before they started collecting championships, the Lightning suffered the same fate in the first round of the playoffs (after a 128-point season) against an 8th place team. , the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Also, when it comes time to dissect the lightning elimination, Panthers leaders need to remember, in particular, that it’s hard to guard against a goalkeeper’s historic performance.
Because this series falls to the unusual domination of Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Sunday night, in the fourth game of this series in Florida, the Russian goalkeeper made 49 saves to close the Panthers 2-0, while the latter has yet to be removed from the score sheet this season. Furthermore, this is the sixth time Vasilevskiy has recorded a shutout in a game where his team had a chance to eliminate an opponent. No other goaltender in history has sealed so many series with such boldness.
In recent years, he has gained a reputation as a particularly inevitable goalkeeper at crucial moments. A few weeks ago, the Players Association’s annual survey also revealed that 37.4% of them would bet on Vasilevskiy if they had an important match to win. Her closest contender in that poll was Carey Price, with 13.9% of the vote.
To evoke such respect among his teammates, Vasilevskiy has never been as dominant as he was against the Panthers, where he compiled an enticing .981 save percentage.
To understand what happened in the Lightning-Panthers series, one simply needs to know that the number of quality scoring opportunities was almost equal on each side in those four games. The Lightning had 52 and the Panthers had 47. But by the end of the broadcasts, the overall score was 10-3 (excluding three empty-net goals) in favor of Tampa Bay.
Athletes and coaches like to believe that it is always possible to find a solution to find the path to success. Probably reassuring, but it’s not true. Sometimes you have to know how to bend the galaxy of a talent.
Last year, the Lightning goaltender is believed to have gotten closer to the gods of hockey by posting rates of .940 against the Hurricanes, .940 against the Islanders and .943 against the Canadiens in the last three rounds of series. However, what Vasilevskiy has done against an attack as diversified as the Panthers puts him in a completely different category.
In NHL history, only three other goaltenders (Tony Esposito in 1974, with a rate of .982; Patrick Lalime in 2002, with a rate of .985; and Tuukka Rask in 2013, with a rate of .985) have been. made complete elimination. round by stopping at least 98% of the shots focused on them.
However, until last Sunday, no goalkeeper had achieved this victory by dealing with as many shots (154) as Andrei Vasilevskiy or by venturing into the best team on the calendar and, moreover, the best NHL offense.
Vasilevskiy’s performance is even more impressive when you consider that the previous playoff round against the Leafs was his hardest (.897) since the undefeated Lightning series began in the summer of 2020. is used more than Vasilevskiy in the last three seasons, making his level of efficiency even more impressive.
With the loss to the Panthers, the Lightning won their tenth consecutive playoff series. In the history of the league, only the two dynasties of CH (1956-1960 and 1976-1979) and of the Islanders (1980-1983) have garnered 10 consecutive winning series in the big spring tournament. The record of 19, held by the Islanders, could no longer be broken.
Habs has Plante and Dryden. The Islanders bet on Billy Smith. On closer inspection, it is arguable that Andrei Vasilevskiy’s role in Lightning’s success was more helpful as it came against the backdrop of a tightly compressed salary cap and the formation of his team has undergone some significant changes.
In the two -and -a -half playoff run, Lightning has already employed more players than the CH and Islanders dynasties have done in five or four years.
The world of sports is sometimes completely unpredictable and that is why it is so beautiful.
Eleven days ago, the Lightning were literally beleague by the Maple Leafs in Game 6 of the first round of the playoffs. Completely overwhelmed by the events, the champions weakened and almost avoided elimination in overtime.
Since that time, Vasilevskiy has taken matters into his own hands and, again, anything seems possible for Lightning.
Neither the Rangers nor the Hurricanes, who will eventually face Tampa Bay in the semi-finals, just need to be careful.
Source: Radio-Canada
