For Nikita Kucherov literally every season in the National Hockey League is a separate chapter in a huge encyclopedia. During the current regular season alone, which is just approaching its end, the Russian forward of the Tampa Bay Lightning has rewritten an insane number of historical pages. And he continues to do this.
Formally, the Lightning have not yet guaranteed themselves a spot on the list of playoff participants, but they are in quite comfortable positions. The Lightning will most likely take the first wild card spot in the East. Only force majeure can prevent this – John Cooper's team made a powerful move at the right time. Largely thanks to Kucherov, of course, who has been showing crazy performance throughout the season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, with the best sniper of the season (and, perhaps, of modern times in general) Auston Matthews on the roster, also suffered at his hands. On the one hand, Matthews still broke through Andrei Vasilevsky's goal. But he only did it once. Whereas Kucherov scored a three-pointer today – although not goals, but assists. Nikita assisted Victor Hedman and Brayden Point in turn, and at the end of the meeting also assisted Nick Paul. The NHL “gave” the third assist to the Russian striker after the end of the match.
With each assist, Kuch achieved a different accomplishment. Thanks to his first assist, he repeated the record for points in one NHL season among all Russian hockey players. The record, which was set by Nikita five years ago, is 128 points. With his second assist, Kucher updated this record, at the same time rewriting his personal scoring record and the best result in the history of the club. With his third assist, Nikita reached the 130-point mark for the season and officially became the first Russian hockey player in history to achieve this.
Over the past 30 years in the entire NHL, only four people were previously able to score at least 130 points in one regular season. And all the names are perfect: Wayne Gretzky (130 points in the 1993/94 season), Mario Lemieux (161 points in the 1995/96 season), Jaromir Jagr (149 points in the 1995/96 season) and Connor McDavid (153 points in the 2022/23 season). Kucherov has joined this elite list.
And what’s most interesting is that for Nikita this is not even close to the limit. The Russian himself said after the match that he still has something to improve:
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"I think I can be much better. And in general, many guys on the team could be better. I hope that we will come to this.”
This approach to life has always set Kucherov apart from other superstars. The Russian forward constantly improves himself and devotes himself to his work, without exaggeration, a million percent. A phenomenon that never ceases to amaze.
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