Bet against Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy at your own peril

Don’t look now, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are starting to make some noise.

After a bumpy start to the 2024-25 season, the Bolts are picking up steam with the NHL Trade Deadline a little over a week away and are quietly becoming a contender out of the Atlantic Division. A lot of the credit has to go to the team’s superstar netminder, Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The man who led the Lightning to two Stanley Cups, including a Conn Smythe Trophy in 2021, has been playing exceptionally well as of late, taking Tampa from a Wild Card team to a squad that can finish in the top three in the Atlantic.

After stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced in a win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, Vasilevskiy has won six straight starts, going unbeaten in his last eight appearances. The Russian netminder hasn’t had an easy workload, as he has been tasked with turning away over 30 shots in seven of his last 12 games.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain why Vasilevskiy is looking like the all-world goaltender we’re used to seeing.

Tyler Yaremchuk: You look at what Vasilevskiy is doing this season…but on the nights they have off, he’s capable of winning them hockey games, which, last year, coming off that surgery…he wasn’t the same Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Now that he’s back and looking like a true elite goaltender, I wouldn’t be comfortable betting against them in any best-of-seven series.

Frank Seravalli: Me neither. The Big Cat wasn’t a big threat before, and he has been. That’s kind of the amazing part about some of these teams Tampa has run into in recent years. In some series, Vasilevskiy has actually been outplayed…If he’s truly at that [elite] level again, which would indicate he’s damn close to it, how do you bet against Tampa?

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…