A Vezina Trophy-winning resumé hasn't meant much in the first round of the NHL playoffs. In fact, some former winners are on the brink of elimination.
A Vezina Trophy-winning resumé hasn't meant much in the first round of the NHL playoffs. In fact, some former winners are on the brink of elimination.
You may have a Vezina Trophy, but what have you done for me lately?
In the first round of the 2023 NHL playoffs, the most heralded goalies in the game are finding themselves in tough against some surprising masked men at the other end of the ice.
The spotlight is currently glaring brightest on Andrei Vasilevskiy, the 2019 Vezina winner and two-time Stanley Cup champion who built his reputation around his ability to deliver shutout performances in series-clinching playoff games.
On Monday, Vasilevskiy was the opposite of clutch.
After the Tampa Bay Lightning built a 4-1 home-ice lead, he let the Leafs score three goals on 12 third-period shots to force overtime. In the extra frame, he stopped five before Alex Kerfoot beat him to put the Toronto Maple Leafs up 3-1 in the series.
Through the first nine days of the playoffs, Vasilevskiy's numbers are among the worst of all goalies. He has given up a league-high 19 goals, four more than second-place Ilya Samsonov of Toronto. And Vasilevskiy's 4.33 goals-against average and .856 save percentage are worse than any other goalie with more than two games played.
His performance actually isn't much worse than his start last year, when he gave up 14 goals in the Lightning's first four games against the Maple Leafs. But there's one huge difference: the 2022 series was tied 2-2. The Lightning ultimately took down the Leafs, and Vasilevskiy was 12-7 with a .928 save percentage and 2.32 GAA from May 10 to June 26.
If he wants another chance to turn his game around, this year's whittled-down Lightning roster has no remaining margin for error. After saying goodbye to Ryan McDonagh last summer and playing without rugged Erik Cernak since Game 1, their defensive depth is now thinner than it's been in years.
But if it's any consolation to Vasilevskiy, he's not the only Vezina Trophy winner who's in a tough spot. Here's how the rest of his brotherhood has fared so far:
2022 Vezina Winner: Igor Shesterkin (New York Rangers)
After putting up an incredible .935 save percentage in his first full year as the Rangers' No. 1 stopper in 2021-22, Igor Shesterkin followed up with a terrific .929 in the playoffs, and the Blueshirts reached the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 2015.
This year, he's improved in the early going, with a .941 save percentage and just six goals allowed in four starts. But over the last two games at Madison Square Garden, Akira Schmid has been even better.
The New Jersey Devils have been leaning into their brand of defensively responsible hockey, and the 22-year-old has stood tall since Lindy Ruff handed him the net in Game 3.
Schmid has given up just one goal per game, backstopping his team to a pair of wins. Now, the Devils head home across the Hudson with the series deadlocked, and the end result is still very much up for grabs.
2021 Vezina Winner: Marc-Andre Fleury (Minnesota Wild)
Last year, Minnesota coach Dean Evason was too loyal to beloved veteran Marc-Andre Fleury in the playoffs. It cost him his team's first-round matchup against the St. Louis Blues after the Wild built a 2-1 series lead.
This year, Evason was in a good spot heading into the post-season. He'd been playing Fleury and sophomore Filip Gustavsson in a steady rotation that was yielding consistent results from both backstops.
From March 1 through the end of the season:
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After Gustavsson faced 53 shots in 92:20 of playing time in the Wild's 3-2 double-overtime win over Dallas in Game 1, Evason had every reason to believe he'd made a prudent decision in continuing his rotation, especially given a potential fatigue factor for Gustavsson. But it didn't work out that way.
Fleury gave up seven goals on 31 shots, left the American Airlines Center with a .774 save percentage, and described his outing as "embarrassing" after the Stars stormed back to even the series.
Gustavsson returned to the net when the series shifted to Minnesota for Game 3, got the win, and delivered another steady outing that wasn't quite enough to outduel the Stars' Jake Oettinger in Game 4.
With Gustavsson sitting at a .941 save percentage and 1.72 GAA, he should remain Evason's go-to choice for the rest of this series or until he falters. Even at 38, and even after a rough playoff debut, it's not impossible that Fleury has one more star turn left in him.
2020 Vezina Winner: Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets)
With a league-leading 64 starts this season, Connor Hellebuyck put the Jets on his shoulders to engineer the late-season rally that got them into the playoffs. And in a year where scoring went up around the league, he improved his save percentage to .920 from .910 last season and cut nearly half a goal off his GAA.
But after coming out strong and winning Game 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights, Hellebuyck and the Jets now have their backs against the wall after dropping three straight. To make matters worse, the goalie doing the damage at the other end of the ice is Hellebuyck's old backup, Laurent Brossoit.
Before this season, the 30-year-old Brossoit had 27 minutes of playoff experience on his resumé — mop-up duty behind Cam Talbot in an Edmonton Oilers' 7-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks back in 2017.
But after two different stints on the injured list and 23 games in the AHL this season, Brossoit stepped up late for the Golden Knights. He put together a 6-0-1 run and .923 save percentage that helped Vegas clinch the top seed in the Western Conference by a narrow margin of just two points.
With 12 goals allowed in four games, Brossoit's post-season numbers don't look like those of a goalie who holds a 3-1 series lead, at .902 and a 2.75 GAA. But the Golden Knights' 3.75 goals per game are tops in the Western Conference, which helps.
And Brossoit is out-duelling his much-more-heralded old partner. Through four games, Hellebuyck checks in at .895 and 3.21.
2017 & 2013 Vezina Winner: Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida Panthers)
The only other Vezina winner who's still active, Sergei Bobrovsky had to wait till Alex Lyon cooled off before he got his net back after he missed time down the home stretch due to illness.
Lyon, deservingly, got the credit for getting the Panthers to the post-season. He posted six straight wins between March 29 and April 8 and gave up a total of just nine goals in those games.
That pushed the Panthers ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and into the playoffs. But before he got sick, Bobrovsky had put together a nice little run himself. After the all-star break, the 34-year-old went 12-4-1 through March 20, with a .915 save percentage and 2.54 GAA.
But the Panthers' reward for sneaking into the post-season, of course, was a date with the team with the most regular-season points in NHL history, the 2022-23 Boston Bruins.
Right now, the only playoff category presumptive 2023 Vezina winner Linus Ullmark is leading right is penalty minutes, thanks to a misconduct after his skirmish with Matthew Tkachuk in Game 4.
Big picture: Ullmark's 3-1 record and .926 save percentage have been more than enough to keep the dominant Bruins in the driver's seat, even as they wrestle with injuries in their forward group.
Bobrovsky finally made his playoff debut midway through the third period of Game 3 after the Bruins had built a 3-0 lead in that game. He gave up one goal on nine shots in just 7:55 of ice time, and the Panthers settled for a 4-2 defeat.
Returning for Game 4, Bobrovsky managed just 25 saves as the Bruins pushed Florida to the brink with a 6-2 win.
The series now heads back to Boston for what could be a decisive Game 5 on Wednesday. The Bruins will be the second team with a crack at punching their ticket to the second round after the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.