Vasilevskiy’s been challenged, has he provided any answers?

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 30, 2016

The moment Ben Bishop overstretched his right leg, skated to the Lightning bench and pulled himself out of a game on Dec. 20, the focus changed.

A top tandem quickly became a solo act.

The spotlight shifted straight on to Andrei Vasilevskiy and will remain focused on the 22-year-old for the time being.

Since Bishop went down, it can be considered a sort of audition for a former first-round draft pick to see where he stands in terms of being a No. 1 goaltender at the NHL level. It’s a role he is almost certain to assume no later than the start of next season. He is the future in net for this franchise.

So the coaching staff has been treating him like one. Pushing him, prodding him, challenging him. He has not been handled with kid gloves in any capacity.

Vasilevskiy is being thrown everything to see how he handles it. He needs to experience anything and everything. That’s why in the past week he’s started both ends of back-to-back games.

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The team needs to see how he handles that and he needs to learn how to prepare for it.

“It’s definitely different for him, and around the league you don’t see . . . some teams play their goalies back-to-back, but most teams split them up in those situations,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “So this is about getting Vasy some games, as well. It’s not unheard of to play guys back-to-back and the American League guys will play three in two-and-a-half days. So is it ideal for them? No, but it’s a test and another way to push yourself and another way to get better.

“These are things you are going to have to do as a goaltender coming in to this league and we have full confidence that he can do it.”

In the four games Vasilevskiy has started since Bishop went down, he has posted a 2-1-1 record, 3.09 goals against average and .884 save percentage. Those are not numbers to instill a lot of confidence (except maybe points in three of the four games).

But sometimes you go deeper than just the numbers to see how the challenge is being met.

Here’s what I’ve noticed in the week-plus that Vasilevskiy has been the No. 1 goaltender:

He has shown improvement and hasn’t been rattled.

In the game against Montreal – the night before facing Toronto – Vasilevskiy mishandled the puck behind the net in the opening five minutes that led to the first goal for the Canadiens. But he didn’t let it bother him, he remained in control of his game and gave his team a chance to get back in the game, eventually won in overtime by Tampa Bay.

And in the overtime, Vasilevskiy was not gun shy about handling the puck, sending an outlet pass to spring Ondrej Palat on a 2-on-1 chance and then picking up an assist on the winning goal, feeding Jason Garrison, who set the outlet pass to Tyler Johnson.

After getting pulled from the game in Washington – he opened that game allowing the opening goal 55 seconds in to the game after the puck went off his glove and went in – in the second half of a back-to-back, he was much better against Toronto, his second back-to-back in less than a week. Vasilevskiy keep the Lightning in the game when it was tied 2-2 in the third and the skaters in front of him were dishing out turnovers like presents on Christmas morning. He was spectacular in stopping 11 third-period shots to earn Tampa Bay a point.

He said he felt better against Toronto than he did in Washington, which he said was the first time he’s ever started on consecutive nights.

“Yes, we didn’t have the three-hour flight, so I felt pretty good (Thursday),” Vasilevskiy said. “I tried to treat it the same, but right now it’s been tough for me because I’ve struggled a bit the past couple of games. The team has played well and I’ve just given up some stupid goals on my mistakes and that’s why we lost a couple of games. But, things happen and I’ll keep working.”

And as long as he keeps improving, learning from the mistakes he does make, the experience he’s getting while facing the challenges he’s been tasked with show that he is on the trajectory of being a No. 1 goaltender.

That when it will be time for the final exam.

Until then, he’ll continue to be quizzed to find out where he stands.

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