Lightning star Andrei Vasilevsky taunts the Maple Leafs before getting embarrassingly pulled from the game

The Lightning/Maple Leafs rivalry is one of the best in the NHL, and their game on Monday featured plenty of drama involving Andrei Vaslievsky.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been off to a red-hot start in 2024/25, posting a 3-1-0 mark through their four games of the season, giving them plenty of confidence coming into their first showdown with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. Before the game began, goaltender Andrei Vasilevsky showed off that arrogance, as he would skate over to Maple Leafs star Morgan Rielly, giving him a snow shower in the process.

That's a move that gained plenty of backlash online from Maple Leafs fans, and with Rielly not being too happy about the situation, it was always going to have consequences later. While Rielly didn't get payback in the way he did when he took out Ridley Grieg a year ago, his team did end up getting beautiful payback, as Vasilevsky was pulled after allowing four goals, much to the delight of the Maple Leafs crowd.

Those four goals came on just 14 shots, which certainly isn't the normal level of production from Vasilevsky, but given his moves before the game, it appears this is the type of karma that he's going to get on a big stage on Monday night. Late in the game, the Maple Leafs held a commanding 5-1 lead over their Atlantic Division rivals, and with a 3-2-0 start of their own, this was just the type of game that they needed to spark their season.

With plenty of history between these two teams, this type of thing brews in such a personal rivalry, and with the teams set to meet another two times this year before potentially doing battle once again in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, you can bet that Toronto fans won't forget this anytime soon.

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