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Which Player is Tampa Bay Most Thankful For? |
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American Thanksgiving is on Thursday and although most of us just want to focus on the food and football, it is still nice to take a step back and reflect about things in your life you are most thankful for.
In the spirit of this holiday, regardless of how cheesy it might seem, I thought it would be fun put together a post about which player I think the Tampa Bay Lightning should be most thankful for so far this season.
Through 20 games, the Bolts honestly have a lot to be grateful for, sitting atop the National Hockey League standings with 32 points and having two legitimate Hart Memorial Trophy candidates on their roster. Although either Steven Stamkos or Nikita Kucherov could very well be viewed as the most important player on this team, and therefore the player Tampa is most thankful for, I decided to go in a different direction with my choice.
In his first full season as the Bolts' true number one netminder, Andrei Vasilevskiy has been nothing short of spectacular. The former first-round draft pick was given the reigns after Tampa Bay chose to part ways with Ben Bishop and he is making Steve Yzerman very pleased with his decision to do so.
Vasilevskiy has been a workhorse for the Lightning this season, starting in 17 of the teams 20 games and recording a league-leading 14 wins. He is in the top five in both goals-against average (2.34) and save percentage (.928) and has bailed out a sometimes suspect blueline on more than one occasion. To this point, Vasilevskiy has faced the third most shots of all NHL netminders with 558 and only 40 of them have been let in the net.
To put it bluntly, the Lightning would not be where they are at this juncture of the season if it were not for Vasilevskiy in net. Yes, the goal scoring would most likely still be there but the Bolts would be letting in a lot more goals against which, in turn, would lead to at least a few more losses.
Just look at the games where Vasilevskiy got the night off. Tampa Bay has lost just one less game with Peter Budaj in net instead of Vasilevskiy and that's because Budaj has only played in three games. In addition, Budaj allowed ten goals in his three games which is 25% of what Vasi has let in.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are a great hockey team and there are a lot of reasons for that. Still, it's hard to imagine them with 32 points through 20 games without strong play from their starting netminder.
For that reason, Andrei Vasilevskiy is the player the Tampa Bay Lightning are most thankful for this Thanksgiving season.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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