Andrei Vasilevskiy makes a head-turning gesture after the Canadiens' overtime goal
Andrei Vasilevskiy said plenty with one stare, and Jon Cooper knows the Lightning are running out of room in this series.
That was the image left on the ice Thursday night at the Bell Centre after Lane Hutson beat Vasilevskiy in overtime and pushed Montreal ahead 2-1 in the series.
Vasilevskiy turned aside 26 of 29 shots, and Tampa Bay still walked out with a loss.
That's the part that should bother the Lightning the most.
Their goaltender gave them a chance again.
The rest of the group didn't give him enough in front of the crease, and the bench looked like it knew it.
What made the ending sting even more was who delivered it.
Hutson admitted after the game it may have been his first slap shot goal in the NHL.
That's not the kind of breakdown Tampa Bay expects to wear in overtime of a playoff game, especially with the series already this tight.
Tampa Bay's margin is getting thinner and it's falling on Andrei Vasilevskiy
Cooper didn't dodge it afterward. He said the Lightning likely wouldn't even have been in the game without Vasilevskiy, which says a lot about how the skaters supported him.
And this isn't a one-off.
All 3 games in the series have gone to overtime, so one mistake, one lost coverage, one missed clear is swinging everything.
Right now, Brandon Hagel is doing most of the damage for Tampa Bay with 4 goals in 3 games. That's production, but it's not enough balance for a team trying to control a series.
The clip says more than the boxscore.
Vasilevskiy stays frozen for a beat, then shoots a long look toward the Tampa bench as the Bell Centre erupts around him.
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That's the kind of reaction fans notice because it feels bigger than one goal. It looks like a team searching for answers while Montreal keeps leaning into the moment.
Now Game 4 carries real weight. The Canadiens have a chance to build a 3-1 lead at home, and the Lightning suddenly look like a club playing from underneath in more ways than one.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 25 | 234 ANSWERS Andrei Vasilevskiy makes a head-turning gesture after the Canadiens' overtime goal Did Andrei Vasilevskiy deserve better support from the Lightning in Game 3 ? | ||
| Yes | 192 | 82.1 % |
| No | 42 | 17.9 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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HIER
5 MAI 2026
| ||||
| B | P | PTS | ||
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Martin Necas | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brett Kulak | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirill Kaprizov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nicolas Roy | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brent Burns | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Daemon Hunt | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brock Nelson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Danila Yurov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | - | - | - | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| Brock Faber | - | - | - | |
| STATS COMPLÈTES | ||||