Saturday, 4 a.m.
When he is right, he is 19 feet tall and 10 feet wide. He blocks the sun, and he eats pucks as if they were popcorn. When he is right, he is a guard dog in front of the net.
When Andrei Vasilevskiy is right, how is someone supposed to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. By holding them to negative goals?
Vasilevskiy was at it again Friday night, pitching his second straight shutout to lead the Lightning to a 3-0 victory over the Seattle Kracken. He had to stop only 17 shots, but he ha the command of a goaltender who could have stopped 100.
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It was the 200th win of Vasilevskiy's carer. Of all the goaltenders who have played the game, only one -- Ken Dryden -- got to 200 faster. It took Dryden just 309 games. It has taken Vasilevskiy just 318.
"I thought we’ve been playing well the whole season.," Vasilevskiy said. "I wasn’t there a few games Some games I didnt’ play well, clearly I gave up too many. It looked liked we played bad, but it was on me."
It's a sentiment that no one else will agree with, especially the last two games. Vasilevskiy has stopped 51 straight over those two games. He now has 29 regular season shutouts (plus six in the playoffs).
When Lightning coach Jon Cooper was asked about Vasilevskiy, he grinned and said. "Just rewind the tape from whenever you've asked me about Vasilevskiy," he said "It's getting a little redundant."
The Lightning got goals from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ross Colton and Seven Stamkos. It was the 11th goal of the season for Stamkos.
The team also honored longtime play-by-play voice Rick Peckham and former Bolt Vanny Gourde.
The Lightning will play against Minnesota on the road Sunday. The puck is scheduled to drop at 2 p.m.
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