Lightning explode for historic performance in Vasilevskiy’s return from injury

The Tampa Bay Lightning made some history filling the Carolina Hurricanes’ net in Andrei Vasilevskiy’s successful return to action on Friday.

Despite firing a meager 14 shots on goal, the Lightning blew out the Hurricanes by a score of 8-2. If you’re thinking that scoring so much while losing the shot battle (24-14) so dramatically is rare, you’re not going far enough — it’s downright historic. Opta Stats points out that the Lightning became the first team to score eight goals (or more) while generating fewer than 15 shots on goal since the NHL began tracking shots on goal in 1955-56.

Not surprisingly, the dynamic duo of Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point fueled that surge, including on a potent power play that went 4-for-4.

According to Lightning insider Erik Erlendsson, Kuvcherov’s six-point outburst ties the Lightning’s franchise single-game record set by Doug Crossman during the team’s first season. Kucherov became the first player to score six points in one game in 2023-24.

You don’t often see a six-point game only earn someone the second star of the night, but Point’s hat trick and two assists stole the spot.

State of Lightning as Vasilevskiy returns

The Lightning managed a 9-6-5 record without Vasilevskiy. Jonas Johansson served as the workhorse in Vasilevskiy’s absence, playing 17 of the team’s first 20 games. Johansson survived more than thrived during that time, squeezing out an 8-4-5 record with an .894 save percentage, numbers that were slightly stronger than those of lightly-used Matt Tomkins (1-2-0, .889).

By just about any more “advanced” metric, the Lightning didn’t receive stellar goaltending without Vasilevskiy.

It would be unfair to pin every concern on goaltending, however. The Lightning defense generally graded out as bad (if not abysmal) to start the season, so there’s work to do for a team with mixed projections even if Vasilevskiy approaches his typical form.

This team could be playing with fire if it expects Vasilevskiy to be an elite workhorse right out of the gate.

While it’s promising that Vasilevskiy returned sooner than expected, we’re still talking about back surgery. You could possibly ease a skater into a return with fewer minutes or other measures, but there’s only so much you can do to “hide” a goalie. Yes, Vasilevskiy is relatively young for all of his accomplishments at 29 years old, but he’s already played 425 regular-season games (including 60 and 63 the previous two seasons) and 110 playoff games.

It could take a delicate balance to make the playoffs without totally burning Vasilevskiy out by April.

For their part, the Lightning protected Vasilevskiy reasonably well on Friday, even against a relentless Hurricanes team trying to fight back from a significant deficit. Natural Stat Trick credited Carolina with a manageable seven high-danger chances at even strength and nine overall (while the Lightning scored more goals [8] than they managed high-danger chances [5]).

Tampa Bay won’t score like this every night, but if it protects Vasilevskiy and manage his fatigue, it might just hang in there for another playoff run.