New year a nightmare for Andrei Vasilevskiy

Andrei Vasilevskiy liked 2016 just fine.

Making his fourth straight start with Ben Bishop still out with injury, Vasilevskiy was rung up for five goals on 36 shots in Sunday's 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

What's amazing is that Sunday's loss was the Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender's second-best outing since the calendar turned - at least statistically. Vasilevskiy's allowed at least four goals in each of his last four starts, sporting an .855 save percentage over that stretch.

Of course, the Lightning - now losers of six of their last eight games - haven't helped out their netminder one bit. Vasilevskiy's faced 80 shots in his last two games, and the Lightning are averaging 33 against in 2017.

This isn't just a recent concern. Tampa Bay, which ranks fourth-to-last in goals against, has now allowed four or more goals in nearly 40 percent of its games this season. Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times points out that it happened just 11 times last year.