The Tampa Bay Lightning players are so used to seeing Nikita Kucherov rack up a ton of points that they no longer pay attention to it.
Thursday night, in an 8-3 win over the Calgary Flames, the 33-year-old hockey player scored a goal and provided five assists for an impressive six points.
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However, he was not the one chosen as player of the game in the Bolts locker room after the game.
“We were discussing who was going to be named player of the match and straight away, someone said: ‘[Jake] Guentzel scored a hat trick, give him the title,” said head coach Jon Cooper in a post-match press conference.
“Then, Guentzel immediately reacted by saying: ‘No, it must go to Kuchbecause he got six points. We didn’t even realize he had six points. I didn’t even know that.”
“We made a mistake and we still gave it to Guentzel.”
It was the second time that Kucherov had six points in a game, having accomplished the feat against the Carolina Hurricanes on November 24, 2023. It is also a franchise record that he shares with Brayden Point (March 14, 2024) and Doug Crossman (November 7, 1992).
Also, the Russian has managed games of four or more points 31 times since he skated in the National League.
“We see him very often, but the fact that he does it almost every night for us is simply incredible,” said defenseman Ryan McDonough. He is a humble player. He doesn’t cheat. He plays the right way. He loves playing in these situations and being a key element for us offensively.”
“But let’s not forget his defensive withdrawal on our power play goal,” the back insisted. That’s what motivates us: his way of playing over 200 feet!”
Kucherov does everything on the ice –
Due to his brilliant performance against the Flames, Kucherov has now scored 44 points in 25 games. That’s only three points less than Nathan MacKinnon, who sits atop the National League in scoring.
