St. Louis Blues Defender gets mauled after running into Andrei Vasilevskiy
Not only did the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the St Louis Blues 5-2, they showed some true character in the game as well.
St Louis defenseman Robert Bortuzzo picked up the puck at centre ice and was coming down the right-wing boards. As Bortuzzo drove hard to the net, he was bumped by defender Mikhail Sergachev. As a result, Bortuzzo plowed right into star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Bortuzzo is a good-sized hockey player at six foot four inches and over two hundred pounds. More known as a stay at home defender rather than a offensive defenseman. Thankfully Vasilevskiy was not injured on the play but was driven into the back of his own net.
The response from the entire Tampa team was automatic. As soon as Bortuzzo ran into the Vasilevskiy, four Tampa players on the ice went after Bortuzzo in the corner. It was good to see how the Lightning players stood up for their all-star goalie.
It was hard to determine if Bortuzzo was intentionally crashing the net on this play. Bortuzzo is not known for driving to the net and Sergachev did give him a bump as he got closer to the net. Bortuzzo has to know that if your going to try and make a play like that, consequences could come. In this case they did. Thankfully everyone was OK and no one was injured on the play.
As a group this is the type of response you want from your hockey club when someone takes a run at your star player. Tampa responded well and went right after Bortuzzo.
| POLL | ||
26 NOVEMBRE | 198 ANSWERS St. Louis Blues Defender gets mauled after running into Andrei Vasilevskiy Do you like the response from the Lightning? | ||
| Yes | 103 | 52 % |
| No | 22 | 11.1 % |
| Bortuzzo was pushed | 73 | 36.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
