“He’s still very agile, very powerful,” Boucher said. “He’s imposing in the net, too. Just because of his size (6-foot-4, 223 pounds), he takes up so much net, I think he’s intimidating to a lot of shooters. I think he gets in the heads of a lot of teams. They know that when he gets going that he’s tough to beat, and he’s got the big-game experience.
“He was fortunate. He was able to get a rest during the Olympic break when other people were playing. He was able to get some rest. And who knows what that’ll do for him here, come playoff time.”
Vasilevskiy is a two-time Stanley Cup winner (2020, 2021) and has been to the Cup Final two other times (2015, 2022). He also was voted the Vezina winner in 2018-19. Winning it again would make him the third non-North America born goalie to win it multiple times, joining Sergei Bobrovsky (two) and Dominik Hasek (six).
“There’s a lot of teams that would that would die to have a goaltender like that in their organization for 12 to 15 years,” Boucher said. “The Lightning are very lucky.”
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis): Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning, 75 points (14 first-place votes); Ilya Sorokin, Islanders 49 (2); Jeremy Swayman, Bruins, 35; Scott Wedgewood, Colorado Avalanche, 33; Logan Thompson, Washington Capitals, 21; Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars, 13; Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers, 10; Brandon Bussi, Carolina Hurricanes, 3; Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota Wild, 1