Nikita Kucherov has registered a multi-point game in 12 of his last 19. In 18 of his last 19 games, he has collected at least one point. After last night’s five-point performance in the Lightning’s 6-3 victory against the Edmonton Oilers, Kucherov trails only Mikko Rantanen in points. The Lightning can’t stop winning—they are 14-1-1 in their last 16 games—and they can’t stop scoring. They are averaging a mind-numbing 4.08 goals per game and that has everything to do with Kucherov’s scorched-earth offensive dominance. Here are the highlights from last night’s dazzling effort.
Steven Stamkos’s power-play goal A clean entry is a feature of a fearsome power play, and Kucherov’s command over the puck makes a difficult task seem easy. He drove up the gut, and due to his eminent reputation, the Oilers skaters retreated, ceding the blue line. Once Kucherov crossed into the offensive zone, he threw a pass behind his back to Palat along the boards. No time was wasted. No bungled passes or need for a scrappy retrieval along the boards.
The puck bounced around the top half of the offensive zone, making stops along Victor Hedman’s stick, Stamkos’s blade, and Brayden Point’s twig as Point took up the role of bumper in the middle slot. Once the puck reached Kucherov, a seam had opened up for him to hit Stamkos for the one-timer. Point was being hugged by Zach Kassian, and one of the Oilers defensemen stepped out to take away the shooting lane for Kucherov. Meanwhile, Palat was tied up in front of the goal. The pause Kucherov took forced Kassian into an impossible situation. Should he eliminate the east-west passing lane to Stamkos or stay glued to Point in the slot? Kassian tried to hedge. He slid toward the lower slot, but kept his stick in position to block a shot from Point. Of course, Kucherov recognized that he could pass faster than Kassian could move his stick into position to remove the passing lane to Stamkos, and the one-timer was hammered past Mikko Koskinen.
The biggest mistake the Oilers’ penalty kill made was taking Palat seriously as a threat in the low slot. Hindsight is 20/20, but the Lightning rarely try the jam play below the circles with their net-front presence. It is almost 40 games into the season, and I cannot remember one time where the Lightning’s first power-play unit tried the jam play and it worked. Rather, the Lightning’s shooters bookending the bumper are a far more potent threat, and an opposing penalty kill would be wise to station their skaters higher in the zone, even if that means surrendering the area around the crease to the net-front presence.
Kassian should never have been in his position to begin with. A better-coached penalty kill would have mandated support from an Oilers defenseman to take away Point’s shot or the Stamkos one-timer. Point has nine power-play goals, and Stamkos and Kucherov have seven each. Palat and Hedman have one power-play goal each. The Oilers had four skaters on the ice and didn’t think it was vital to eliminate one of those three scoring options. Credit to Kucherov for recognizing the faulty judgments made by the penalty killers and exploiting them with a perfect pass.
Nikita Kucherov’s breakaway goal The man has a sixth sense for sniffing out breakaway opportunities. The flight pattern he took on his goal was fascinating. Kucherov’s parabola-route, arcing toward the middle, as he sprinted out for the shot-block on the Oilers’ defenseman, allowed him to jump on the bungled pass reception by Jesse Puljujarvi. Kucherov is such a fluid and graceful skater that his speed is less obvious. But the acceleration demonstrated by Kucherov to gain separation from both the Oilers’ defenseman and Puljujarvi resulted in a lopsided footrace that allowed Kucherov to enter the slot and calmly deposit a shot glove-side.
The secondary assist on the Tyler Johnson goal As a hockey nerd, I love great passes on breakouts, and Kucherov’s play off the boards was outstanding. Point won the faceoff, and Kucherov immediately darted toward the far boards. He would be facing pressure from the strong-side Oilers defenseman pinching up the boards, and from the Oilers’ F3, who was purportedly trying to take away the pass through the middle. But Kucherov zipped a pass to Johnson, and voilà ! A transition chance was created with Johnson and Point dashing through the neutral zone for what would become a two-on-one since Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fell, unable to keep pace with the speedsters.
Kucherov’s assist to Steven Stamkos for his second goal Watching Kucherov on a daily basis, one becomes inured to his brilliance. There are few players who are more efficient in their touches and more creative in their movements. With the score 4-3 and 5:15 left to go in the game, Kucherov received a pass from Hedman to exit the zone and have an opportunity off the rush against Adam Larsson. He transported the puck on the perimeter before attempting to cut to the inside, but was disrupted by a pretty clear holding penalty that was missed.
But Kucherov was also cutting toward his support from linemates, and Tyler Johnson was able to scoop up the puck and find Hedman as the weak-side trailer. After Hedman failed to convert, the puck sputtered toward Johnson in the corner. Kucherov received a pass from Johnson, and, confronted by Connor McDavid, Kucherov cut toward the goal line before making a crisp pass toward Anton Stralman at the point. The Oilers were exhausted and the Lightning wanted to stretch their opponent’s defense, which had just flooded the area below the circles. Kucherov worked his way toward an area in the off-slot, where he would function as a springboard for Stamkos, who had just jumped off the bench and had fresh legs. Once Stamkos received the puck from Stralman, he moved the puck to Kucherov, and the two worked a give-and-go. Kucherov pretended to set up for a one-timer, but instead steered the puck toward the slot, where Stamkos had exposed a very tired McDavid.
When a team experiences this degree of success, it is worth celebrating the collective focus and the individuals spearheading the consistent triumphs. Kucherov’s signature night is emblematic of a team that tramples its enemies with guile and raw talent.