New York. Tampa fans may not need to worry too much about the injury to star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Swedish substitute Jonas Johansson kept his second straight clean sheet as the Bolts won last night’s pre-season derby against Florida in “neutral” Orlando.
– It was great, and praises coach John Cooper after the 2-0 win.
Panic erupted in West Florida when it was recently announced that Andrei Vasilevskiy — often called the best goaltender in the world — would undergo back surgery and miss the first two months of this year’s regular season.
“How will they deal with Jonas Johansson,” gasped even the most optimistic.
Well, that’s totally fine — at least judging by the surrogate’s efforts last week. The 28-year-old – who has been in North America since 2016 and after stints in Buffalo, Colorado and Florida and Colorado came back to Tampa this summer – kept a clean sheet against Carolina on Friday and last night he repeated that feat against Florida at the Amway Center in Orlando.
– We are improving as a team and Jonas is really doing his part, says coach John Cooper when summing up the 2-0 win.
– He was fantastic tonight and made a number of crucial saves, not least when he was outnumbered.
In total, Jonas stopped 25 shots.
Connor Bedard continues to thrill fans in Chicago ahead of his long-awaited NHL debut.
When the Blackhawks won a practice game against Detroit last night, 4-2, the coveted draft pick scored a goal — into an empty net — as well as two assists.
Jonathan Berggren even played one of the Wings’ goals.
In Boston, Washington was able to defeat the Bruins 5-4 after an overtime goal scored by Matthew Phillips.
Nicklas Backstrom responded with an assist, and Hardy Haman Aktell – who is battling for a jersey in next week’s Cubs Premier League lineup – boosted his stock with another strong effort.