The NHL department of player safety has announced that Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov has been suspended one playoff game for boarding Columbus defender Markus Nutivaara.
By Peter Hassett 7 months ago
The last minute of the first period was wild. The game looked like it was heading into intermission 1-0, but then the Bolts scored, but then they didn’t, and then Ovi did the Ovi thing.
Here goes.
During the 2018 All-Star Game, Tampa Bay Lightning sniper Nikita Kucherov scored the most stunning goal of the three-on-three tournament.
Faking Braden Holtby out with a phantom deke, Kucherov let the puck slide through the Capitals goaltender’s five hole without ever touching or shooting the biscuit.
Tuesday night, Kucherov did the magic move again in the Bolts’ 4-2 win over the Caps.
During last night’s All-Star Skills Competition, Alex Ovechkin sought out the other three Russians participating in the 2017 All-Star Game for a photo – in what is becoming an annual tradition.
Team Russia shocked the world by coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the gold medal game against Canada to win the IIHF U20 World Junior Championship one year ago. Tremendous coaching, discipline, and a lot of luck made a good team great. Several players also proved that they were the real deal, including Dmitry Orlov (currently playing in Washington), Vladimir Tarasenko (Blues prospect currently ranked fifth in KHL in goals), Maxim Kitsyn (KHL’s Metallurg Novokuznetsk), Artemy Panarin (Vityaz), and — the youngest of the bunch — Evgeny Kuznetsov. Role players from last year’s team, Nikita Dvurechenski (KHL’s Vityaz), Anton Burdasov (third-line center on the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk), and Nikita Pivtsakin (KHL’s Avangard Omsk), have also graduated to become full-time KHL players.
Unfortunately, age eligibility rules have forced a drastic change to Russia, who is looking to repeat as champions for the first time since 2002 and 2003. The only returning player is Caps prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuzya, the captain wearing #25, is sure to be a major key to success for the Russians. He’s played in the tournament before, scored, and assisted on clutch goals.
Kuznetsov’s been very successful at the professional level this year: he leads the KHL in game-winning goals (5), scored the game-winner in the Karjala Cup, and plays on the first line of the Russian league’s best team, Traktor Chelyabinsk.
By 8 years ago
