Tampa forward Nikita Kucherov is ready to break his scoring record

Russian Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov is racing towards the title of top scorer of the NHL regular season. A goal and an assist in a match in which his club beat the Pittsburgh Penguins at home – 3:1 – allowed him to break away far – by half a dozen points or more – from his closest pursuers in the race for this status. And Kucherov’s current schedule now even exceeds the schedule of the championship five years ago, when he won it with record numbers.

Tampa’s next match in the regular season became, God knows what, an occasion to talk about the role of its Russian players for this club. In this case, both of its domestic stars received approximately equal attention.

Goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevsky missed the start of the season due to surgery and played only his sixth match in the championship. Not everything worked out for him immediately after returning to duty, but now almost everything works out. In the previous meeting – with the Dallas Stars – Vasilevsky did not miss any goals at all. Now I missed one, but already in the final minute, when the result was made. And it was made primarily through his and Nikita Kucherov’s efforts. Vasilevsky fought off dangerous shots, for example from Sidney Crosby, Kucherov provided the team with goals in the majority. In the first period, he was assisted by Anthony Cirelli along with Victor Hedman, and in the second he personally hit the goal with his famous “laser” shot from the right throw-in circle. In terms of lethality, it seems to be in no way inferior to Alexander Ovechkin’s legendary shot from the left circle.

The fact that it was Nikita Kucherov who was the main character of Tampa when it was in someone else’s third of the court, no one, of course, saw anything strange.

This season, Kucherov, who has been playing at an elite level for many years, seems to be in some kind of exceptional tone. He seemed to have improved even more than his former self.

Even his indicators speak about this. After the match with Pittsburgh, Nikita Kucherov had 44 points, gained in 26 regular season matches he played. Projected over its entire distance, this is 134 points. In 2019, one of Kucherov’s main career highs took place. Then, according to the results of the regular championship, he scored less – 128 points. At that moment, the figure was a record for this century, and together with the scoring Art Ross Trophy, it also brought the Hart Trophy to the Russian as simply the best player in the NHL.

Nikita Kucherov’s achievement, however, was surpassed in the previous season by Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. But his phenomenal level of 153 points does not look completely prohibitive for the Russian striker, given that his productivity is constantly increasing during the championship.

The last time he remained without effective action was in mid-November, almost a month ago.

In the championship scoring race, Nikita Kucherov has already managed to create a lead. The closest pursuer is Jay. Ti. Miller of the Vancouver Canucks is five points behind, with Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers, David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins and Miller’s teammate Quinn Hughes even further ahead. And McDavid, his “shadow” competitor, so far, by the way, only has 32 points. And this is already a huge distance. In general, the new Art Ross Trophy and Hart Trophy shine brightly for Kucherov. But there is no need to rush with the second one.

It is believed that it can be awarded to a hockey player only if his club performs at least relatively successfully during the season. Simply put, he should find himself in the playoffs. And Tampa, despite Kucherov’s exploits, plays extremely unevenly. She has more defeats than victories, and her position in the Atlantic Division is only fourth. And this despite the fact that the opponents have several matches in hand. So recessions are not recommended for either Kucherov or Vasilevsky.

Alexey Dospehov