Hockey Agent Dan Milstein (famously @HockeyAgent1 on Twitter) revealed that his client, Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been nominated for the George Vezina Memorial Trophy, which was supposed to be announced on Friday by the NHL. This will be Vasilevskiy’s third nomination in a row, he won the award for best goaltender in the NHL last season and finished third the year before.
Congratulations to Andrei Vasilevskiy on 3rd consecutive NHL Vezina Trophy nomination. #WeAreGoldStar! pic.twitter.com/pR0dvPh6WN
— Dan Milstein-Hockey (@HockeyAgent1) July 16, 2020
Vasilevskiy posted a .917 save percentage, eight clicks behind his monstrous .925 the year before. Vasy won 35 games in 52 starts before the shutdown, notching three shutouts in that time.
This was actually a tough year for Vasilevskiy in terms of advanced metrics. He gave up 8.29 goals above expected over the course of the season according to Evolving Hockey. Among the top-30 goalies in the league, Vasilevskiy was 20th. By comparison, Connor Hellebuyck was light-years ahead of the field, standing on his head in front of an awful Winnipeg Jets team. He stopped 19.86 goals above expected and dragged his team to the playoffs.
It’s likely Hellebuyck will win the award when its announced during the Conference Finals, his season was a step above everyone else’s, but hopefully Vasy will still be playing games to take his mind off it.
Lightning Links
Yanni Gourde was mic’d up for the first scrimmage of the season. It was as funny as one could imagine!
.@yannigourde mic’d up = day made. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/2RP7q15cOe
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 16, 2020
Here’s a post-session analysis of the Lightning’s first scrimmage of Summer Camp. The boys were a little anxious after a long time off the gas.
“Guys were anxious to scrimmage,” McDonagh said. “For those guys that have been through the small groups, it’s a lot of drills, maybe some small games, but there’s nothing like 5-on-5. You can’t emulate it, no matter what drill you do, the bounces of the pucks, the changes in the game.” – Bryan Burns, NHL dot com
Mushkin’s Musings this week arrived yesterday. Check out his conversation with Brian Engblom!
On this week’s Musings, @davemishkin catches up with Brian Engblom! 🎤
Full interview: https://t.co/HyzsOkGAMI pic.twitter.com/8MEYMKMw5w
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 16, 2020
Rogers Arena in Edmonton, one of the two host cities for the NHL’s playoffs, flooded yesterday evening during a massive storm in the area. It doesn’t look good from the video shared online of garbage bins floating around the south entrance and water coming up the stairs. The Oilers have released a statement saying the rink itself is fine and everything should be safely up and running by the time teams arrive for the playoffs in nine days time.
What the fuck happened to Rogers Place no no no no no pic.twitter.com/LKqaU1YxaV
— Zain (@ZainL96) July 16, 2020
2020 is cursed https://t.co/y7luG8q7SW
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) July 17, 2020
No official word on damage done to flooded arena in Edmonton. NHL will only say it’s “unfit to play.”
— Ian McLaren (@iancmclaren) July 17, 2020
Over in the ECHL, the Adirondack Thunder have signed a great name, Alex Sakellaropoulos, for next season.
PLAYER SIGNING: The #ADKThunder have signed goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos to a standard player contract for the 2020-21 season. #RiseUp
DETAILS: https://t.co/QhojLl9a9T
— Adirondack Thunder (@ECHLThunder) July 16, 2020
