(Tampa) Among the National Hockey League goaltenders, obviously, is Andrei Vasilevskiy…and then there are the others.
Since his arrival in the league in 2014-2015, the Lightning goaltender has collected trophies and rings, and today, at 28, he still looks like a top goaltender.
In fact, since winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 2019-20, Vasilevskiy has appeared in 251 games, including the playoffs and regular season, which is 45 more than his closest pursuer in that run, Connor Hellebuyck.
And the one who manages all of this is Frantz Jean, Lightning goalkeeper coach since 2010.
“It’s a season difference,” he said Tuesday in Tampa. For a club to find itself in such a situation is a good sign. That means your team has had a long run in the playoffs! »
After all these years, Jean remains impressed by his young foal. “He’s the Sidney Crosby of goalies! “, he launches without hesitation.
And how do you manage such a guardian, exactly? The Quebec coach admits that there is a bit of luck in all this; in almost nine years of professional career, Vasilevskiy has never suffered a serious injury. In the offices of the Lightning, we have already prepared for him a schedule of 50 to 55 games for the season, which we do not want to have to rethink too much.
Everything else comes from the principal, who is a fitness freak, according to Frantz Jean.
Listen, he doesn’t go out, watch his diet… I don’t even know if he drinks a beer! But there is also a certain formula that we hold on to. He doesn’t usually train on match mornings, for example, and he’s only given two matches in the preparatory calendar… I’ve been in this business for 25 years, and I can say that in terms of preparation, he is at the top. For this year, we have even chosen to minimize its preparation time. He had a pretty heavy routine, both physically and mentally. We didn’t want to exhaust it. I feel it even more fresh and rested this year.
Frantz Jean
In the same breath, Frantz Jean adds that the era of goalkeepers playing more than 70 games per season is probably over. For example, he is told about Carey Price, who has already kept goal 72 times in a single season.
“Genetically, all athletes are different. Ben Bishop, for example; he had injuries, and already, at 27, 28 or 29, he was starting to have problems with us. He played an entire season with a hand cast from his blocker. We knew it was genetic, he had misplaced bones.
“Price is kind of the same thing. He suffered a fairly serious knee injury in the series against Rangers [de New York en 2014], and in his case, there was a heavy medical record. A goalkeeper mortgaged like that, it is certain that the chances that he plays at 39 are slim. When we faced him in the final [en 2021], we did not know that he was injured. I found out afterwards, and honestly, it was maybe the best hockey he had played, not in his career, but at least in his last seasons. He handled the pain unbelievably, when you look at the playoff performances and how he gave his club a chance to win every game. It was the warrior in Carey, his winning personality, that led him to this. »
The Canadian will face the Lightning again in Tampa on Wednesday night, and this time, of course, Carey Price will not be there. But Andrei Vasilevskiy will still be in uniform, and if the Lightning keep playing luck with him, they will be for a long time.