TAMPA, Fla. _ Judging by the scoreboard, this didn't look like a game the Lightning needed a career game from Andrei Vasilevskiy. Tampa Bay won by a decent margin at 4-1.
The score was deceiving, however. Toronto out-played Tampa Bay and put 49 shots on the Lightning goaltender. He came up with saves again and again, to the tune of a new career high, and did so in his first game back from a fractured foot.
There were a couple of nice ones in the first period, on Auston Matthews and John Tavares respectively (maybe you've heard of Toronto's big stars). But then came what may have been the best save of Vasilevskiy's career in the third.
It was three saves in one, one of those you have to see to believe.
Vasilevskiy made the initial save on Patrick Marleau and it looked run-of-the-mill, good but nothing special. Then Marleau sent the rebound back at him and it got interesting.
Vasilevskiy stretched out wide left with his glove and got most of the shot, but the puck got past him. He then reached his leg out straight back, kicking to swipe where the puck should be. He just caught it with his toe.
Again, Vasilevskiy did this in his first start after missing 14 games, a month of play.
It wasn't exactly a game-saving save, the Lightning were up by three goals at the time, but it was indicative of what Vasilevskiy did on a night when the Lightning needed him early.
