Vasilevsky returned and restored order
This championship is “Tampa” was divided into “before” and “after”. At the end of September, as training camp was winding down, it was learned that the Lightning’s star goaltender Andrei Vasilyevsky he will miss two months due to back surgery. He was diagnosed with a hernia in his lumbar spine.
It is interesting that Vasya was treated for exactly two months – from September 27 to November 24, when the goalkeeper, nicknamed Big Cat, played his first match of the season against Carolina.
That’s not to say Tampa looked terrible without Vasilevsky. The team is in the playoff zone and global problems have been avoided. But the Lightning’s two goalies – Jonas Johansson (89.4% of saved shots) and Matt Tomkins (88.9%) – frankly did not perform well. And defenseman Mikhail Sergachev was so nervous about becoming the worst in the NHL in utility (currently -11) that he shut down his social media.
So everyone was impatiently awaiting Vasilevsky’s return. The winner of the Vezina Trophy awarded to the best goaltender in the league, the owner of the Conn Smythe Trophy awarded to the most valuable player in the playoffs, had to come back and put the Tampa net in order.
And that return became inevitable immediately after Thanksgiving, when the Lightning placed Tomkins on waivers. It became clear that Vasya would play.
Kuch could have aimed for 10 points!
This game wasn’t about defense at all. Although the first period ended with a score of 1:0 in favor of the hosts, when Carolina forward Stefan Nousen received the puck behind the goal and scored on Vasilevsky with one touch.
And in the second period, there was a struggle. Steven Stamkos Nikita Koucherov , Brayden Point – Tampa’s three main guns – scored three power plays. Additionally, this removal extravaganza was sparked by the “king of minor fines,” Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov, who tripped Luke Glendening.
Carolina striker Michael Bunting reduced the score to a minimum again (2:3). But in the third period, Tampa tore the hosts into small pieces, scoring five unanswered goals and bringing the score to 8: 2.
Kucherov played an absolutely phenomenal match, scoring 6 (2+4) points in one go. To give you an idea of the magnitude of Nikita’s greatness, this is a repeat of the Tampa club record. The last time this happened was on November 7, 1992, when Doug Crossman had a hat trick and three assists against the New York Islanders. Surprisingly, Crossman was actually a defender.
Let’s look further: this is the second result in the history of Russian hockey. None of us in all the annals of the NHL have ever scored six points in a regular season game. But there were seven of them, when the legendary Sergei Makarov played for Calgary on February 25, 1990 and scored 7 (2+5) points in a game against Edmonton.
The absolute record in the NHL belongs to Toronto forward Darryl Sittler, who scored 10 points (6+4) in a game against Boston on February 7, 1976. And it seems that if Carolina’s game against Tampa consisted of four periods, so Kucherov could even challenge Sittler. Additionally, the Hurricanes ultimately completely collapsed and were only capable of fighting.
Kucherov’s 142 points per season: is it real?!
Four out of five power play goals (80%). Incredibly incredible implementation: After all, Tampa only had 14 shots on target in Carolina’s goal. And she scored eight goals. 57.1% is simply fantastic!
Even the organizers of the match in the state of Raleigh were confused, because when choosing the three stars, they placed Kucherov only in second place, and Point (3+2) became the first. On the other hand, he scored a hat-trick. And there are few options when caps fly from the stands onto the ice.
Nikita Kucherov is generally a gloomy guy who rarely gives interviews. But we know what friendship means to him. And we remember that when Tampa won the Stanley Cup, Kuch went to the podium to the journalists to first of all push the idea into the microphone: what nonsense did his friend Vasya that year not not recognized as the best goaltender in the league, they did not give him the Vezina Trophy.
Of course, Vasilevskiy’s return inspired Tampa. When I made my prediction for the season, I said the Lightning would win the Stanley Cup. And there you have it, after having passed the zone of turbulence, the southerners begin to gain momentum, having behind them one of the best goalkeepers of our time.
Try to stop these guys!
What does the list of top scorers in the championship look like now? The first is Kucherov (15+20=35 in 20 matches). I don’t think Vancouver’s Quinton Hughes (8+24=32) will challenge him; I don’t expect such agility from the defenders. Connor McDavid (6+14=20 at 17), who won the Art Ross Trophy three years in a row, is depressed.
But we remember how Kucherov became the NHL’s top scorer in 2019, scoring 128 (41+87) points in 82 matches and breaking Alexander Mogilny’s Russian record (127).
Kuch currently has 61 goals and 81 assists for a total of 142 points this season. In other words, it can do more than update its own file.
Can you imagine what Kucherov’s horizons are this season? Stunning!
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
