Lightning Round: Vasilevskiy is the top star of the week

There was no doubt that Andrei Vasilevskiy was going to be one of the NHL’s Stars of the Week after he posted a 3-win, 2-shutout week, but it’s still nice to see him as the top star in the league.

The Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitly and Boston’s David Pastrnak joined him in being honored. An interesting note in the league’s press release is that Vasilevskiy will enter the playoffs with a lifetime record in the postseason of 63-38. The only active goaltender with more wins is Marc-Andre Fleury who has a 92-73 record.

Vasy ranks 13th all-time in postseason wins, just two behind Dominik Hasek and five behind Andy Moog. That’s not a name one would normally think of when talking about the best goaltenders in the league. Moog had a nice run in the early 1990s with the Bruins where he won 31 games over three postseason runs with Boston. Patrick Roy is the all-time leader with 151 wins in 247 games.

It seems Vasilevskiy has saved his best play for the end of the season which is a good sign for the Lightning as they’re going to need him at his best when they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in a couple of weeks.

Lightning News

‘Coop’s Catch for Kids’ returns after a few years off [Tampa Bay Times]

With an extra day off the Lightning took to the waters to benefit pediatric cancer research and patient services. The pandemic and Hurricane Ian have postponed the event over the past few years so it was nice to see everyone back out on the water and having a good time.

The Goalies ‘R’ Good Enough – Raw Charge

The Crunch are holding their own in the AHL playoff race and are getting just enough goaltending out of Max Lagace and Hugo Alnefelt to pick up points.

Alex Barre-Boulet named AHL Player of the Week [The AHL]

It’s been a career year for the Crunch forward who know holds the franchise records for goals, assists, and points. In just 255 career AHL games (all with Syracuse) he’s recorded 277 points (108 goals, 169 assists).

NHL / Hockey News

Briere dismissed from hockey team [ESPN]

Three weeks after a video surfaced of Carson Briere pushing Sydney Benes’ wheelchair down a flight of stairs, Mercyhurst University announced that he had been dismissed from the school’s hockey team. Briere and Patrick Carrozzi (who was also seen on the video) are scheduled to appear in court on May 22nd.

Riveters & President Digit Murphy Part Ways [The Ice Garden]

Murphy was the president of the Metropolitan Riveters and a SVP of BTM Partners, an ownership group that has stakes in the Riveters, Boston Pride, and Toronto Six. She will be pursuing other opportunities in women’s sports per the press release.

Michael Bunting is getting the Nazem Kadri treatment [The Toronto Star]

Is two weeks too early to start working the refs? Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe seems to imply that the refs have it out for Bunting based on the penalties he’s racked up over the season. “Based on the way that he’s been officiated of late, no, I’m not surprised at all [that he was assessed a misconduct for complaining to the refs]” Keefe said after their game against the Red Wings.

10 key players to watch in playoff races [Sportsnet]

The Islanders Bo Horvat made the list. Hey, he plays against the Lightning this week! Young netminder Devon Levi of the Buffalo Sabres also made their list.

As the fighting era fades, is it worth asking what the NHL has lost [The Athletic]

As part of The Athletic’s series on fighting in the NHL, Sean McIndoe explores the possibility that the league has lost something that made it special as fisticuffs has slowly disappeared over the last couple of decades. In the end he decides that no, it hasn’t: “No, the game didn’t lose anything, at least not anything worth keeping, and if you think it did then you can crawl back to the YouTube comments with all the other dinosaurs.”

Five players that had surprisingly rough seasons [The Hockey News]

Jack Campbell takes the top spot, which considering he is in the first year of a five-year contract, isn’t the greatest thing for the Oilers.