Carolina Hurricanes: Series Preview vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
By Conor Power
Goaltending
This one is fairly easy.
Alex Nedeljkovic has had a fantastic season, both regular and playoffs. Whatever happens, the kid from Parma, Ohio has done himself proud. He’s started to allow the Canes some stability in the blue paint for the future, and the Carolina Hurricanes no longer have that hole to fill there. It’s a really unusual situation.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy is a Vezina winner and he’s likely going to win it again this year. His ability to stretch from post to post makes it nearly impossible to outmaneuver the 6’3 Russian. He’s got the ability to just randomly put his glove in the middle of nowhere and come up with the puck. He can see around traffic and track the puck as well as anyone else in the history of the league.
If you thought that Nashville posed a genuine threat of getting the series stolen from them by a goaltender, Vasilevskiy is going to make you want to break your television. Seeing teams score on Vasilevskiy is very rare and it’s going to pose a tough challenge to get the run support their young goaltender will need.
On the other foot, going up against the murderous Tampa Bay Lightning team will be the biggest challenge of Nedeljkovic’s career. It’s very likely that whoever comes out of this series will not play a more difficult series than this because of how complete these teams are. Goaltending for both teams is incredible and it should be a very entertaining series to watch.
In terms of depth, this goaltending matchup is very one-sided. Tampa does have an elite goaltender, but it’s really Vasy or bust. If they are forced to turn to backup Curtis McElhinney, it heavily favors Nedeljkovic. Carolina on the other hand has the experience of James Reimer or the mystery box of Petr Mrazek. The depth here favors Carolina, but the starter’s battle is Tampa’s by a small mile.