The Washington Capitals fell 3-0 Saturday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning handed them their second loss of the season to snap a five-game win streak. Much of the credit for Tampa’s victory rests with goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made 31 saves in his shutout effort to earn First Star of the Game honors.
After the loss, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery had plenty of respect for the opposing netminder’s abilities, though he admitted he’d rather not have to face off against him.
“I will be a glad man when he leaves the league one day,” Carbery said with a chuckle. “He’s just so big and he moves so well, just so talented. So it’s just, you have your hands full. And some nights, like last year, we got to him a little bit in some of the games, but tonight, you can tell he was on.”
Vasilevskiy has had a decorated career in nearly a decade as the Lightning’s starting goaltender, helping lead Tampa to back-to-back Stanley Cup victories in 2020 and 2021 and winning the Conn Smythe in the latter year. He also won the Vezina Trophy in 2019 and has led the league in wins five times.
Carbery’s had plenty of opportunities to witness Vasilevskiy from up close, both during his time with the Capitals and his two-year stint as an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2021-23. In Carbery’s first year behind the bench in Toronto, Vasilevskiy’s Bolts knocked the Leafs out of the playoffs en route to Tampa’s third-straight Cup Final appearance, though the Leafs would return the favor in 2023.
Over those three seasons in the league, Carbery’s teams have often managed to come out on top despite Vasilevskiy’s efforts in net. The Leafs posted a 4-2-1 regular season record against Vasilevskiy during Carbery’s tenure in Toronto — with a 7-5-1 record in the playoffs — while the Caps won two of their three games against him in 2023-24.
The Capitals are one of just six teams Vasilevskiy has a losing record against in his career: he’s gone 9-10-1 against Washington, averaging a .900 save percentage and 3.27 goals against. None of that was enough Saturday, however, as Vasilevskiy stopped 2.67 expected goals to record his first-ever shutout against the Caps.
After the loss, Carbery acknowledged that the Caps struggled to put up the quality scoring chances needed to beat one of the league’s best goaltenders.
“I didn’t like, when we got into some of our scoring situations, right away. I was like, ‘Uh oh,’” he said. “Protas’ breakaway wasn’t great. A couple that hit him right in the logo. So when you do that to an elite level goalie and make him feel it, it almost feels like he gets bigger and bigger and bigger in the net when you’re just giving him — we just, other than Dubois’ shot where he rings it off the pulse, great shot, he goes low glove on him, I just didn’t think we really threatened with some good shots when we got into those situations.”
But while the Caps couldn’t pull out a win against Tampa this time, Carbery maintained a positive outlook on his team’s overall performance. Washington now sits third in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-2-0 record, and even against the Lightning, the Caps largely played well despite failing to finish.
“I thought we played a good game…created a ton of good looks,” he said. “O-zone time was there, defended fairly well and checked fairly well for the most part. So just a matter of, just didn’t have that any polished finish. Didn’t make that play that we needed to make from anybody throughout that game. We just couldn’t make that last play, whether it was on a two-on-one, whether it was in cold on Vasilevskiy, whether it was a rebound. Scoring chance opportunity, we just couldn’t make that last play tonight, which will happen from time to time.
“But the process is good. If you come down here, if you told me we were going to come down here and out-chance Tampa in their building, I’d take that all day long. Some nights they don’t go in for you.”
