Andrei Vasilevskiy Is Back In Net For The Tampa Bay Lightning And Now The Rest Of The NHL Is In Deep, Deep Shit
Gee. Zus. Christ. Listen, I understand when I’m out of my league. And I understand that nothing I can say here will ever do that save enough justice. So what I’ll do is just let every replay angle of that save do the talking for me.
Holy.
Heckin’.
Shit.
If that’s a home game for Toronto, the light goes on and the goal horn gets blasted. Obviously the goal judge is going to be a little slower on the trigger being that it’s a home game for Tampa, but I don’t think there’s anybody in the building besides the ref and Andrei Vasilevskiy there who thought that puck stayed out of the net. What an absolute animal. What’s so crazy about that save is that he actually had to avoid touching the puck when he first kicked his legs up and back. If he hit that puck with his pads as he was bringing his legs up, there’s a good chance he ends up kicking that puck in the back of his own net. But he avoids touching the puck at first, is able to get his pads behind the puck and then kick it back out in front of the net. Just a ridiculous save that really shouldn’t be humanly possible to make. Either that’s the Russian Gas working for Vasilevskiy or this dude is fucking Harry Potter. (not fucking Harry Potter in the sense that he’s having sex with Harry Potter to gain special wizard powers but the f-word was just used there for emphatic reasons).
And what makes this save even more absurd than it already is?
This was Andrei Vasilevskiy’s first game back after missing the last 4 weeks with a broken foot. Heading into last night’s game, the Bolts had already won 7 games in a row. They were 13-2 in their last 15 games heading into last night. Keep in mind that all of those games were without a Vezina caliber goalie like Andrei Vasilevskiy in net for Tampa. They played 15 games without Vasilevskiy in net and they ended up winning 13 of them. Now he’s back after his injury and that circus save he made on Patrick Marleau was just 1 of the 48 saves he had on the night. 49 shots for Toronto, 48 saves for Vasilevskiy. Typically if you give a team like Toronto that many chances to fill the back of the net, they’re tossing at least 6 in there. But not against 88.
So now what? Like what can the rest of the NHL even do here? Tampa was already the hottest team in the league as is, and now they just brought back a goalie who can shut down one of the most lethal offenses in the league. It’s not fair at this point.