Quick Strikes: Anthony Cirelli and Mathieu Joseph are playing for the gold medal at the Worlds

The Bolts

The last installment of our Player Grades series was released yesterday. [Raw Charge]

Overall, Vasilevskiy’s save percentage was 0.925, good for eighth among all starting goaltenders. At 5v5, his save percentage was 0.929, good for 13th among all starting goaltenders. Both of these are very good and shouldn’t be discounted. However, Vasilevskiy stands out among his peers in the penalty kill department. While down a man, Vasilevskiy’s save percentage was 0.911, the best among all starting goaltenders. The next starting goaltender was Devan Dubynk at 0.901. The only other goaltenders near him were Carter Hart (31 games 0.906 SV%) and Alexander Georgiev (33 games 0.913 SV%). Vasilevskiy was on another level when the Lightning were killing penalties.

Speaking of Vasy, he made another unbelievable save at the World Championship against Finland.

Vasilevskiy had a strong game against Finland, but it didn’t help team Russia and they lost to Finland in their semifinal. Vasilevskiy and Kucherov, alongside with Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov, have been named the players of the tournament for Team Russia. They’ll face the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game today.

In the other semifinal, Canada defeated the Czech Republic. Anthony Cirelli and Mathieu Joseph are the only Lightning players who will play in the Final.

The Game

The Stanley Cup Final is starting tomorrow. Here’s a list of players who played in the AHL at some point in their careers.

The Stanley Cup Trophy was seen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway yesterday.

Nothing specifically related to the Tampa Bay Lightning was shared in the latest edition of 31 Thoughts, although Elliotte Friedman mentioned that Erik Karlsson “would like to see if Tampa Bay can make it work”. [Sportsnet.ca]

Some interesting thoughts about a possible Phil Kessel trade:

Here’s my sense of what’s going on with Phil Kessel: he vetoed a trade to Minnesota and the story is out because both teams are unhappy. He cannot be traded to the Wild without specific approval, and, if you know Kessel, you know he will stand up for his rights no matter what anyone else thinks. The fact it got out may make it even harder to complete, because he’ll push back against pressure

And about the possibility of NHL players playing at the 2022 Olympic Games:

It is expected that the International Ice Hockey Federation will want to know by September 2020 if the NHLers are going to the Beijing Olympics.

According to this person, who has had some Oilers scoops in the past, Milan Lucic could have been traded last season, but Peter Chiarelli’s prices for him were comically high.

Former Syracuse Crunch and Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Mike McKenna talked about the Stanley Cup Final.

This article can help you to understand what’s happening in Women’s professional hockey