Lightning Round: Vasilevskiy has a chance to continue his streak

Andrei Vasilevskiy has been on an absolute tear of late. He owns back-to-back-to-back shutouts against the Carolina Hurricanes and Dallas Stars. He’s shut the door when his opponents have been abysmal offensively, but also when they pour 60 shot attempts on him like Dallas did in their last-gasp attempt at a goal on Tuesday.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are now in Chicago, who are definitely not an offensive juggernaut. They are bottom-10 in the league in shot attempts, goals, and expected goals, through they are moderately higher in scoring chances. A lot of their chances come from the left point, with a smattering of chances in the slot that presumably come from the point.

The Bolts haven’t always been perfect in their defense during Vasilevskiy’s streak, but they certainly cover the points, block shots, and systematically keep their opponents from gaining ground in the neutral zone (and thus offensive zone). Accounting for everything, it’s very possible Vasilevskiy keeps the streak going for at least a couple more periods.

I’m currently at the point in this streak where I can’t imagine Vasy giving up another goal ever again.

Lightning Links

The Syracuse Crunch are on a winning streak! After winning on Monday over the Rochester Americans, the Crunch made it two in a row with a shootout win over the WBS Penguins. They have a chance to extend it to three on Saturday against the Amerks again. I wrote an update on the roster after several players were sent back to junior or are sitting on the injury list. [Raw Charge]

“Since there’s been no consistent length that I can find regarding COVID quarantines (there are different variables of travel, isolation length, tests, etc) it’s hard to know how long Denisenko and Stillman have been with the Panthers and/or how long it’ll take for them to come back. ABB and Colton could be on their way back soon as the Lightning get healthier. Mitchell Stephens will likely dictate that timeline. Heck, we might never see them here again since they’re playing so well.”

Greg Linnelli and Dave Mishkin have sometrophy opinions. [NHL dot com]

“Greg feels strongly that Andrei Vasilevskiy should earn consideration for the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL’s Regular Season MVP. He also believes that the Jack Adams Award, given to the Coach of the Year, should not be decided by vote. Instead, the award would automatically go to the Head Coach of the eventual Stanley Cup champion.’

Brayden Point can really do it all, and he showed it on Tuesday with a great offensive performance and some haymakers. [Tampa Bay Times]

“Brayden Point isn’t known for swinging fists, but the Lightning star center didn’t hesitate to drop his gloves after taking an elbow to the head in the third period of Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over the Dallas Stars. Point didn’t take kindly to Dallas center Andrew Cogliano’s hit against the boards. As Cogliano skated into the corner to battle for the puck, he raised his left elbow and hit Point in the head.”

The NHL released a statement on Wednesday affirming their position against Asian Hate. In and out of sports, Asian Americans have been receiving undue racist hate for the coronavirus, like it’s their fault. Wear a mask, socially distance, flatten the curve.

This was a really interesting article on genuine steps the NHL can take towards increasing diversity and inclusion. Safe to say the NHL isn’t doing many of them despite their words.