John Romano: Hey, guess what? Andrei Vasilevskiy is still the best in the world.

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Jan 28, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — Every so often, you are struck by his brilliance.

Nothing as humdrum as the accumulation of numbers or the random 15-second highlight video on social media. This is more visceral. More like an overdue awakening of the soul.

The sun sets every day, but sometimes you just need to stop and stare.

That’s how it is with Andrei Vasilevskiy, too.

More than 10 years into his NHL career, the Tampa Bay goaltender can still grab your attention at the oddest moments. There was nothing about Monday night’s 2-0 win against Utah that suggested Lightning fans were about to get a treat. Only 48 hours earlier the team had given up eight goals against Columbus and lost a game in regulation for the first time in more than a month.

And when the Lightning began slowly against the Mammoth, you braced yourself for the possibility of an impending lull. But then Vasy makes a glove save on a point blank shot from Kailer Yamamoto and you sit up a little straighter in your chair. Later, he stops a snap shot by Barrett Hayton from 6 feet away. And then a breakaway from Dylan Guenther and Michael Carcone that saw Vasilevskiy slide from left to right to smother another Grade-A chance.

With every subsequent save, you could almost feel him crushing Utah’s spirit.

Right up until the moment that Clayton Keller came flying out of the neutral zone all alone and skated directly at Vasilevskiy before trying to sneak a tying backhand through the 5-hole only to see the 6-foot-4 goalie get low enough for the block.

“We just relied on Vasy,” said defenseman Darren Raddysh. “He was unbelievable back there. He kept us in it the whole game.”

If you need a more formal explanation of what Vasilevskiy did on Monday night, consider this:

Utah had 16 high-danger scoring chances compared to seven for the Lightning, according to naturalstattrick.com. And he still walked away with his second shutout of the season. It also extends his franchise record for career shutouts to 42. The next-closest is Ben Bishop at 17.

Still on the fence? Then, how about this:

Vasilevskiy lowered his goals-against average to a league-leading 2.07. This is a guy who has already won Vezina and Conn Smythe trophies and, if he keeps that average up for another two months, it will be a career best at age 31.

“He’s been on his game for some time now,” head coach Jon Cooper said. “He slowly took over.

“They’re a pretty dynamic team. They’re fun to watch and, if you give them a lot of time and space, they’re a hard team to defend. So I felt for that first half of the game, we really had to lean on Vas.”

To hear Vasilevskiy describe it, the game was a joint effort of defense and special teams and that’s true to a degree. But it was very evident that the difference in the outcome was the guy standing in front of the Lightning net.

“I love those kind of games, lots of shots, a few scoring chances, it’s my game,” Vasilevskiy said. “There’s no time to think, and I didn’t think about anything.”

As it turns out, all Vasy needed was one goal and Raddysh provided that late in the second period. With the Lightning on the second of back-to-back power plays, they moved the puck effortlessly around the offensive zone before Nikita Kucherov sent a pass to Raddysh at the top of the left circle. Raddysh blasted it into the upper right corner of the net for his eighth power-play goal of the season, the most among any NHL defensemen.

Tampa Bay put the game away in the final minutes when Anthony Cirelli scored another power-play goal that was originally credited to Brandon Hagel on a tap-in.

“There was a lot of things to like,” Cooper said. “We defended well, our power play, our penalty kill.”

In the end, however, it was Vasilevskiy who deserves the bulk of the credit for the victory. It was his 12th win in his last 13 starts, with the only loss coming in a shootout. It was also his eighth consecutive game giving up two goals or fewer.

“It’s unbelievable,” said defenseman J.J. Moser. “He for sure did a lot of the heavy lifting today. So it’s a very well deserved shutout for him. We’re happy that we, as a team, could help him out on the way.”

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