DENVER — Even the best in the world can have his bad moments.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final marked the first time Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had given up three goals in the first period of a playoff game. Two of those Colorado Avalanche tallies uncharacteristically trickled through him for what could be termed “soft” goals, at least by his standards.
But being the best in the world comes with an unparalleled confidence in one’s abilities. He stopped every shot he faced until the Avalanche won in overtime, challenging attacking players with a ferocity undeterred by his first-period struggles. “He’s an all-world goaltender. He stood tall and gave us a chance to win it,” captain Steven Stamkos said.
The Lightning don’t worry about Andrei Vasilevskiy. Frankly, they’re in awe of him.
“It’s pretty cool to play with a player that’s going to go down as one of the best that’s ever played the game,” Tampa Bay Lightning winger Alex Killorn said of his goaltender.
At this point in his career, trying to contextualize the inherent greatness of Andrei Vasilevskiy is like awarding an Oscar for best picture halfway through a movie’s premiere. He turns 28 next month. He’s finishing his eighth NHL season, all with the Lightning. He led the NHL in regular-season wins in five of those seasons, capturing the Vezina Trophy in 2018-19 as the league’s top goaltender.
But it’s the postseason accomplishments that have players like Killorn anointing Vasilevskiy the GOAT before he turns 30.
Entering Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Colorado Avalanche, he had played in 98 postseason games. He won 61 of them. He has a career postseason save percentage of .925, tied with Dominik Hasek, which is .001 away from the best of all time. His stats in games in which the Lightning eliminated opponents are legendary: He has six career series-clinching shutouts, the most in NHL history.
If coffee is for closers, Vasilevskiy would be Starbucks.
Oh, and he was the backbone for consecutive Stanley Cup championships and potentially a third in a row, collecting a Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP in 2021.
That too.
There has been some “Goalie Mount Rushmore” talk about Vasilevskiy this postseason. Perhaps you’ve heard it or seen it. So I asked someone whose visage is already chiseled on that cliffside about whether Vasilevskiy belongs there at this juncture.
“The way he’s been playing for the last three years has been unbelievable. Some of his stats, those Game 7s and clinching games. It takes a special goalie to be that dominant for so many years,” he said. “How many times would it have been easy for him to say, you know what, I had a good run. I won these Stanley Cups. But he just perseveres, you know?”
In case you couldn’t tell, Marty is a bit enamored with Vasilevskiy. So is his son, as Vasilevskiy is his favorite goaltender — Brodeur told me that he has acquired a few autographed items through Tampa Bay goaltending coach Frantz Jean for the young fan in his life. For years, Brodeur put Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens on a pedestal as the NHL’s greatest modern day goaltender. Vasilevskiy changed that.
“Since he’s been on this run, it switched it for me,” Brodeur admitted.
Brodeur knows a thing or two about postseason success. Or three, actually, as in the number of Stanley Cups he won with the New Jersey Devils en route to 113 career postseason wins, second all time to Patrick Roy (151).
Three Cups. But not three in a row as Vasilevskiy is attempting to achieve.
“I never had the chance. I went to three Stanley Cup Finals in four years. I went back to back [in 2000 and 2001] and lost to Colorado in seven games,” Brodeur said. “What he’s on the verge of doing, it’s crazy.”
Let me get out my chisel for the Mount Rushmore of playoff goalies. Roy is on there — I mean, with 151 playoff wins, four Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe paired with three of them, one could argue Roy deserves his own mountain.
I’d chisel Brodeur next to him. That third spot could go to a number of players: New York Islanders dynasty goalie Billy Smith, six-Cup winners Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden, Edmonton Oilers legend Grant Fuhr among them. Pick any of them and you’re golden.
And then I’d chisel Vasilevskiy next to them.
It’s not just the potential three Stanley Cup wins in a row. It’s the four trips to the conference finals in five years. It’s putting up elite numbers in an era that’s not the friendliest for goalies, against the greatest offensive talent we’ve ever seen. It’s the way he has done it: 13 series-clinching wins in his playoff career, trailing only Marc-Andre Fleury (16) among active goalies, with a .991 save percentage in his past eight series-clinching wins, dating back to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final.
Again, just my opinion. Others don’t necessarily share it.
“It’s a little early to be talking about the Mount Rushmore of goalies because I’ve got a lot of respect for guys going back to the Johnny Bower days,” said Brian Engblom, a former NHL defenseman who has been a broadcaster for the Lightning during Vasilevskiy’s career. “It’s a hard question. You’re talking about the whole history of the NHL. You have to take longevity into it, right? He can’t have done any better than he has up until this point, and I fully expect him to keep doing the same thing.”
What does Vasilevskiy do that makes him better than everyone else?
“He is a machine,” Engblom said. “He’s got the best legs of any goalie I’ve ever seen in the National Hockey League. He’s so fast. They call him the Big Cat for a reason. I’ve seen so many plays where guys come in and give a million-dollar move and then he shoots out a leg. You can see the expression on the forward’s face: ‘C’mon, you didn’t stop that one, that’s impossible.’ He does the impossible.”
What does that mean?
“He can go both directions at the same time.”
Like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four?
“Watch him in the warm-ups. He’ll sit in the splits for like 30 seconds, like a gymnast. He’s a phenomenal athlete, incredibly powerful and all the attributes. But more than anything, he’s driven to be a winner. He’s driven to be the best.”
I asked Vasilevskiy’s backup, Brian Elliott, about that drive to succeed.
“It’s pretty special. It’s something that when I signed here I was really happy to be partnered up with him. One of the best guys to do it,” Elliott said. “I was lucky enough to have one of those stints when Marty Brodeur was with us in St. Louis. It’s something you never forget, being at a practice and looking at a legend at the other end. [Vasy] is making himself into one of those guys that’ll go down in history. That’s pretty special to me.”
Does he belong on the Mount Rushmore of playoff goalies?
“I don’t put him there. He puts himself there,” Elliott deadpanned. “I don’t get into that whole debate. He’s proven, and still proving, what he can do.”
The mind boggles at what Vasilevskiy could end up proving when all is said and done. His first full season as a starter was 2017-18. He has gotten 188 wins in the five-year span since then out of 372 possible games due to shortened seasons (winning 50.5% of his team’s games). According to ESPN Stats & Information, five more seasons at that win rate would mean 207 victories; 10 more seasons would be 414 more victories. The latter would put him at 643 career wins, or 48 behind Brodeur’s all-time record of 691.
Hypothetically, even if we dock Vasilevskiy 10 wins in Years 6-10 due to his age and/or playing with lesser teams, he’d still be approaching 600 wins and easily be in second place in NHL history.
Does Brodeur hear the footsteps?
“Not yet,” he said. “He’s got a little ways to go, but that’s fine. Like I told you before, if someone gets to the record, they’re going to deserve it.”
As I admire my masonry work in putting Andrei Vasilevskiy on my Mount Rushmore of playoff goalies, I agree with Brodeur. Vasilevskiy is not quite there on the Mount Rushmore of regular-season goalies.
Not yet, at least.
“You’re getting maybe half his face on Mount Rushmore,” Engblom said, metaphorical chisel in hand. “I’ll reserve the other half for when he plays for another eight or nine years.”
Until then, we’ll continue to witness the burgeoning legend of Andrei Vasilevskiy.
“That’s how you gauge players: how they play in big-time games,” Killorn said. “He’s been nothing but tremendous in these games.”
There was some debate among Lightning fans as to why this celebration of Phil Esposito, the Hockey Hall of Famer who was a driving force in expansion to Tampa, should be considered a Foul.
At a minimum, it’s because this is a hockey jersey, not a billboard, and should be treated as such. But also, from a design standpoint, that giant blue ocean of color under the nameplate is just aesthetically distracting. At least put a No. 92 there in honor of when the team was founded. Although it would still be a Foul.
Video of the week
The Avalanche are in the Stanley Cup Final. It’s about time this gets unearthed.
There’s a lot of sweat. And lip-syncing. And sweaty lip-syncing. There’s also a clip of then-head coach Patrick Roy trying to fight Bruce Boudreau between the benches, which was truly radioactive.
“Imagine Avs,” as it was known, was a collaboration between the team and Imagine Dragons. The Avalanche actually deleted it from their official YouTube channel some time ago. You can watch it above or on Streamable.
We demand a remake if they win the Stanley Cup. Or, if they lose, force the players to sweaty-lip-sync to “Thunder.”
Bruce Cassidy is a terrific coach and a straightforward one. He’s as candid as they come. His hiring will benefit the Golden Knights, who could use someone to slice through the nonsense and take a fresh look under the hood to see what’s wrong with their engine. For Cassidy, he takes over a contender on the way up instead of a fading one in Boston. Good news all around with this hire.
Loser: Secrecy
I like John Tortorella with the Philadelphia Flyers, a hiring that ESPN’s Kevin Weekes said is in the works. You couldn’t cook up a better aesthetic and philosophical fit than Seething Man and the Broad Street Bullies. That said, it’s a tough look for the Flyers to have reports that Barry Trotz was (a) their first choice and (b) turned down $7 million annually (!) to coach the team.
Find me anyone who loves anything more than Gary Bettman loves the Arizona market for the NHL. At his state of the league news conference, the commissioner once again went to bat for the Coyotes’ three-year (plus an option for a fourth!) plan to play in an arena at Arizona State University that seats no more than 5,000 fans.
“It’s not unprecedented. You do what you have to do if you believe in the market long term. We remain excited and optimistic about the [Tempe] project,” he said, citing the possible arena project that would be constructed while the Coyotes play at ASU. Bettman even cited several examples of teams playing in smaller venues temporarily, like the San Jose Sharks at the Cow Palace and Tampa Bay Lightning at Expo Hall. Never mind those were expansion teams, and that those placeholder venues still hold twice the capacity of ASU.
Loser: San Jose Sharks
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly revealed that the Evander Kane contract termination grievance with the San Jose Sharks “has been delayed due to scheduling conflicts with the case’s arbitrator, and may not be reached before free agency opens July 13.”
Kudos to the NHL for quickly and sternly addressing the elephant in the room: What happens when the Lightning or Avalanche win the Cup and one of their Russian players wants to take the chalice to their homeland, which is currently being ostracized by the NHL for its invasion of Ukraine?
“We made both clubs aware already with respect to this summer, the Cup is not going to Russia or Belarus,” Daly said. “We may owe a Cup trip in the future, just like we did with the pandemic. But it’s not happening this summer.”
Loser: Gerard Gallant
I received a few text messages from hockey public relations professionals who were stunned by the Rangers coach’s fumbling of Kaapo Kakko‘s healthy scratch in Game 6 against the Lightning. Gallant refused to address it during the game or after the game.
It was only later that he revealed it was only a decision meant to give his team the best possible lineup. But by refusing to engage on the matter, Gallant opened up the spigot for a flood of speculation about Kakko and the “real” reason he was out of the lineup, from an incident with the coach to other more extreme theories. That’s a shame and something completely unwarranted. It’s such an unforced error.
On an all-Black hockey team in Minnesota. “To have a team like this come through here is no better way to say, ‘We’ve arrived. We’re here. Hockey is literally for everyone.’ This proves it.”
The only way the World Cup of Hockey can be a success is if it’s held during the season. Happy to hear this is the plan.
What the scouts are saying about top NHL prospects. “I would take Slafkovsky. He’s a difference maker, you saw it at the Hlinka, the Olympics, the Worlds. I’m not sure Wright is a difference maker type of player. There were a lot of games I wondered where the effort and drive to take over the game was from him.”
“Despite overtures and flirtations, especially with Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta once expressing adding a major league hockey franchise to the Toyota Center, anything resembling an outright NHL-to-Houston move is purely rumor and speculation in 2022.” Oh, OK, glad we cleared that up.
What a potential Alex DeBrincat trade could look like for the Chicago Blackhawks. “If the Blackhawks do decide to go all in with a rebuild and deal DeBrincat there should be no shortage of interested teams. New Jersey, Buffalo, and Detroit need something to jumpstart their rebuild. Calgary might have to replace Johnny Gaudreau. Los Angeles and the New York Islanders need another star. What that trade looks like though remains to be seen. But there is at least a potential framework out there based on similar deals in the salary cap era.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.
Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.
The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.
Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.
LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.
Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.
Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.
Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.
Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.
After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.
BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.
Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.
Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.
CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.
Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.
Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.
Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.
The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.
Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.
Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.
Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.
RANGERS 5, RED WING 2
DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.
Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.
Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.
The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.
Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.
KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1
MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.
Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.
Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.
Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.
BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.
Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.
Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.
Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.
Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.
OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.
Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.
Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).
Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.
Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.
BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2
CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.
Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.
Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.
Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.
The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.
Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.
KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4
SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.
Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.
Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.
Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.
Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.
Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.
Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.
A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”
All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.
“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”
After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”
San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.
“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”
The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.
“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.
Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.
