Miami (AFP) – Tampa Bay Lightning starting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will be out indefinitely after reportedly breaking his left foot in practice Thursday, the National Hockey League club announced.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper gave no details about the injury to the 24-year-old Russian netminder but TSN Canada reported the broken foot and Louis Domingue appeared to confirm the injury in comments to the Tampa Bay Times.
“The guy breaks his foot and couldn’t walk right after. Then he puts some ice on it and says he’s good to go,” said Domingue, set to replace Vasilevskiy between the pipes for Tampa Bay.
With nine wins in 13 games, Vasilevskiy ranks second in the league just as the Lightning do at 15-5 with 1 overtime loss for 25 points, tops in the Eastern Conference and one win behind NHL overall leader Nashville.
Vasilevskiy has a 2.30 goals-against average and .927 save percentage, last appearing in Saturday’s 6-4 Lightning loss to Ottawa.
Last season, Vasilevskiy was 44-17-3 with a 2.62 GAA and .920 save percentage. He matched Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck for the most NHL wins last season and equaled Nashville’s Pekka Rinne for the most shutouts with eight.
Overall, Vasilevskiy is 94-52-12 with a 2.58 GAA and .918 save percentage in 168 NHL games.
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