Nikita Kucherov is an absolutely phenomenal hockey player. If Connor McDavid, whom the entire hockey world admires, reached heights not only thanks to his work capacity and training, but also to his innate talent, then the Russian scorer from the Tampa Bay Lightning has made himself a top-class player. It is unknown how his career would have developed if the Lightning had not decided to cover all the costs of Nikita’s treatment after a shoulder injury more than ten years ago. But Kucherov thanked the club in full for this support and, through constant training, endlessly honing all his skills to perfection and self-improvement, he grew into one of the strongest hockey players of the 21st century. Or even the entire history of the NHL.
In recent years, the Russian has accustomed everyone to his high performance. But Kucherov would not be Kucherov if he had not continued to conquer more and more new heights. This season Nikita surpasses his best self, and indeed all the players in the league. He scores an incredibly high number of points and does so in almost every match. Today's game against the Anaheim Ducks is one of those.
In the battle with the Ducks, Kucherov scored an assist hat-trick, became the first star of the meeting and brought the Lightning victory – their third in a row.
Nikita completed all three assists during the second period. It was then that Tampa decided the outcome of the meeting. For the Russian, this was already the 20th time in his NHL career when he scored three points in one separate 20-minute segment of the game. Among active players in the league, this is the fifth result. Only Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid (both 24 times) and Alexander Ovechkin and Patrick Kane (both 22 times) have more. Also, thanks to three assists, Nikita strengthened his lead in the season's scorers race. Now the Russian forward of Tampa has 72 points (28+44) in 43 matches. At the moment, he is the first and only player in the current NHL season to reach and overcome the mark of 70 scoring points.
With his performance in the match with Anaheim, Kuch also rewrote the Russian history of the NHL. With three assists, Nikita tied with Vyacheslav Kozlov on the list of the best assists among all Russians who have ever played in the NHL. Both share ninth place in the rating with 497 assists each. Kucherov in this case goes higher – it took him almost half as many matches to reach this mark. But this is not the most important thing.
Even after his second assist, Nikita entered the elite club of Russians who have scored 800 career points in the NHL championships. Before Kucherov, only nine hockey players achieved this mark. Tampa forwards finished tenth. There are only legends ahead: Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeniy Malkin, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Mogilny, Alexey Kovalev, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Sergei Gonchar. If you look at the history of the Lightning, then among all the players in the franchise, Kucherov became only the fourth who managed to reach the 800 point mark. At this rate, the Russian will break the cherished thousand already next season.
Nikita is creating a huge foundation for this now. According to all forecasts, the Tampa star will finish this regular season with a record performance indicator both for himself and for all Russians in history. Five years ago, Kuch had his absolute best result, scoring 128 points. This year he goes to 136 points. The Lightning still have 38 matches ahead. For Nikita it’s enough to rewrite another page in history.
Recent Comments