The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player storylines from around the NHL. On deck this week is:
• Vasilevskiy’s drop-off in play in the post-season
• Slafkovsky and Cooley making their mark
• Flyers look like a completely different team with Martone
• Johnston building an impressive playoff resume
Heading into Game 2 against the Montreal Canadiens earlier this week, there was a narrative surrounding Andrei Vasilevskiy we weren’t used to. The Tampa Bay Lightning netminder has always been a sure thing. The great equalizer. Something the Lightning and their fans never had to spend a moment worrying about. Vasilevskiy is intimidating, both due to his size and the aura he’s built up through multiple Cup runs. He once seemed unbeatable and impenetrable.
Now? There are doubts about his game in the biggest moments. For the first time, he seems human.
That’s because his numbers over the past few post-seasons have been very un-Vasilevskiy-like. Heading into that crucial Game 2 on Tuesday against the Canadiens, Vasilevskiy’s stats had cratered since the start of the 2023 post-season. Over that stretch, Vasilevskiy owns an .878 save percentage, a 4-13 record, minus-four goals saved above expected, and he’s allowed four or more goals on eight different occasions. Not surprisingly, Tampa hasn’t won a playoff series during this span either.
This dip comes while Vasilevskiy is still posting strong regular-season numbers. He’s been among the best in save percentage and goals saved above expected over the past couple of seasons, though there’s been a drastic decline when the postseason arrives. With some key members of the Lightning’s core getting older, cap constraints and mounting injuries, Vasilevskiy is no longer a luxury for Tampa. They need him to be elite if they’re going to win and keep their contention window open.
So, what has changed for Vasilevskiy over the past few post-seasons? During a playoff broadcast in 2023, Derek Lalonde, a former Lightning assistant then coaching the Detroit Red Wings, noted that at times Vasilevskiy struggled picking up shots from the point, and teams have been trying to take advantage of it ever since.
When the Lightning won the Cup in 2020, Vasilevskiy had a .946 save percentage on screened shots during the postseason, according to SportLogiq. In the 2023 playoffs, though, Vasilevskiy’s numbers plummeted in that area, down to a brutal .773 in an opening round loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last year, the Florida Panthers again capitalized with traffic in front, as Vasilevskiy only had a mark of .842 on screened shots.
A similar pattern can be seen on deflected shots. Vasilevskiy’s save percentage off of tips was .943 in 2021, but fell to .750 in 2023 and .667 in 2025. It’s not exactly a unique strategy to get pucks and bodies to the net during the playoffs, but you can see Montreal making a concerted effort to create chaos around Vasilevskiy in this series. Josh Anderson’s disallowed goal in Game 1 is a good example. You can see all the bodies Vasilevskiy has to fight through just to see the shot.
What makes this development in Vasilevskiy’s play so interesting is Vasilevskiy’s size. At six-foot-four, Vasilevskiy is one of the bigger goalies in the league, so you’d think shots through traffic and off deflections would have a better chance at hitting him compared to some other netminders. Though that hasn’t been the case in recent post-seasons, and opposing teams are taking advantage of it.
To his credit, though, Vasilevskiy responded to the doubters in Game 2 against the Canadiens. He stopped 25-of-27 shots, guiding Tampa to only its second overtime win in the playoffs in the last 13 tries. Montreal is proving a massive challenge to the Lightning, and Vasilevskiy needs to be at his peak for Tampa to advance. Or at minimum, the best goalie in the series.
One strong performance won’t bring back all the mystique Vasilevskiy spent several springs creating. There is a different confidence in opposing shooters that are barreling down on him now, as teams believe they can solve the puzzle of Vasilevskiy that once seemed like a fruitless endeavour. Vasilevskiy used to often have shooters beat before they even shot. If the Lightning have one more long playoff run left in them, Vasilevskiy has to find a way to get that edge back.
The 2022 NHL draft didn’t have all the fanfare around it like other drafts in recent memory.
There wasn’t really a consensus No. 1 pick, and Shane Wright, who was thought by many to be the top selection, ended up falling to fourth overall. Juraj Slafkovsky went first to the Montreal Canadiens, a pick some questioned at the time. Those questions appeared justified after Slafkovsky’s rookie season, where he tallied just four goals and 10 points.
However, Slafkovsky has been on a slow and steady ascension since then, and he’s announcing his arrival in these Stanley Cup Playoffs in spectacular fashion. The 22-year-old had a hat trick and seven shots in a Game 1 win over the Lightning, which included the overtime winner to silence the crowd. If you’re a Canadiens fan, though, Slafkovsky’s performance isn’t all that surprising. He’s improved his point total every year since that rookie season and finished 2025-26 with 30 goals and 73 points. It’s starting to feel like his blend of size and skill is going to make Slafkovsky one of the league’s great power forwards for years to come.
Then there’s Logan Cooley, who went third overall in that same draft to the then Arizona Coyotes and now Utah Mammoth. The Mammoth are making their first-ever playoff appearance, and it’s clear Cooley is one of the biggest catalysts for their offence. He’s notched a pair of goals in the series, which includes the game-winning tally in Game 2 to give Utah its first post-season victory.
Cooley was on pace for his second straight 65-point campaign before injuries derailed his season. Like Slafkovsky, Cooley isn’t putting up eye-popping numbers like other high-end picks from recent years, like Macklin Celebrini or Matthew Schaefer, but both are already proving they can shine on the big stage. Maybe the 2022 draft won’t go down as one of the all-time great classes, though it’s safe to say Montreal and Utah are both very happy with their selections.
If you were looking for words to describe the Philadelphia Flyers over the past several seasons, stale, bland, mediocre and average would come to mind. The Flyers had missed the playoffs for five straight seasons heading into this year, and for the past four of those campaigns, they finished between sixth and eighth in the Metro.
However, in 2025-26, Philly has been one of the league’s great stories. Looking destined to miss the playoffs once again, Rick Tocchet’s crew made an inspired run down the stretch thanks to the goaltending of Dan Vladar and a new energy around the team. That came from Porter Martone, who burst on the scene for the final nine games of the regular season and tallied 10 points. He also recorded 14 shots over his first two outings, proving he wasn’t simply going to dip his toe in the water. Martone hit the ground running.
That mentality has followed him right into the playoffs. Martone notched the game-winning goal in Games 1 and 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, becoming the first teenager in NHL history to accomplish the feat. The 19-year-old doesn’t look blinded by the bright lights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and has already been the biggest difference maker in the series.
Martone is a great example of how one young talent can inject life into a team. The narrative around the Flyers in recent years is over, as Martone has instantly made them more dynamic and tougher to defend. If you look at players like Celebrini, Schaefer and now Martone, it’s evident that a high lottery pick can make a massive difference to the future and perception of your franchise.
It looks like Martone is just getting started, and we can probably expect the Flyers to be an annual participant in the post-season going forward.
If you wanted to model your franchise after someone in the National Hockey League, you could do a lot worse than the Dallas Stars. The Stars have embodied the draft and develop strategy, managing to find gems later in drafts while constantly competing for Stanley Cups.
One of those talents is Wyatt Johnston, who the Stars chose with the 23rd-overall pick in the 2021 draft. Johnston already feels like a major steal for the Stars, getting better and better every year, and culminating in a 45-goal, 86-point campaign in 2025-26. He also led the entire NHL in power-play goals this season, and if you did a re-draft of that class, you could make a case that Johnston should’ve been a top-five pick.
Still only 22, Johnston appears to be experienced beyond his years thanks to being a part of a handful of deep post-season runs with Dallas already. Johnston has been to three conference finals in his first three post-seasons, and he hasn’t just been a passenger. After a pair of goals in Game 2 against the Minnesota Wild and the overtime winner in Game 3, Johnston is now up to 21 career playoff goals. Ten of those also came in one incredible performance during the 2024 post-season.
That puts Johnston in some pretty good company with plenty of runway left to go for his career. He’s already surpassed some impressive names like Rick Nash, Paul Kariya, Keith Primeau, Todd Bertuzzi, Ron Ellis, Tom Wilson, Taylor Hall and several other notable players on the all-time playoff goal list. Did I mention that he’s still only 22 years of age? Expect him to climb up even further on the ladder as soon as this spring.
It feels like Johnston’s career is just getting started, though he’s already built an impressive playoff resume that many accomplished players would be jealous of.