Gotta admit: A little confused by Nikita Kucherov's reported comments calling out his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates.
The NHL's fifth-leading scorer with 85 points, Kucherov, 24 in June, is poised to become one of the game's best players, but he's apparently not too enamored with some of his mates. The first-time 40-goal scorer vented to a Russian newspaper after a lost season that some of his teammates "got their money and stopped working," relays the Tampa Bay Times' Joe Smith.
Hardly subtle.
The comments even extended to the organization, which according to Kucherov is not providing competition for positions on the team, so guys are apparently coasting.
"You can see it in their stats and way of play," he reportedly said.
The thing is, you can't - not in their stats, at least.
All this after the Jonathan Drouin drama last year. Never a dull moment in the Lightning dressing room.
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Name names
Here's a look at Kucherov's teammates who had at least 20 points this season, comparing their 2016-17 points-per-game averages to their career averages (which includes this past season):
| Player (Position) | 2016-17 GP | 2016-17 PPG | Career PPG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victor Hedman (D) | 79 | 0.91 | 0.55 |
| Drouin (F) | 73 | 0.73 | 0.58 |
| Ondrej Palat (F) | 75 | 0.69 | 0.71 |
| Tyler Johnson (F) | 66 | 0.68 | 0.69 |
| Brayden Point* (F) | 68 | 0.59 | 0.59 |
| Alex Killorn (F) | 81 | 0.44 | 0.49 |
| Valtteri Filppula** (F) | 59 | 0.58 | 0.54 |
| Vladislav Namestnikov (F) | 74 | 0.38 | 0.39 |
| Brian Boyle** (F) | 54 | 0.41 | 0.27 |
| Anton Stralman (D) | 73 | 0.30 | 0.33 |
| Steven Stamkos (F) | 17 | 1.18 | 0.99 |
* Indicates rookie
** Indicates player traded at/before deadline
Some quick takeaways:
- Hedman's career high in points before this season was 55 - he had 56 assists this year. He finished with 72 points - one more than Erik freakin' Karlsson - and is nominated for the Norris Trophy.
- Drouin turned 22 in March. He's going to be a star.
- Point's a rookie. You didn't hear about him because this season's freshman crop was insane.
- Killorn's 19 goals were a career high. How dare he.
- Even Filppula was producing. Heck, Boyle was going to challenge some career highs had he stayed in the south and not been traded to Toronto's fourth line.
- Ask anyone: They'll gladly take another dip in Stralman's production if it means Hedman's a 70-point Norris contender.
- Stamkos' line says it all. He played 17 games, and there's your issue.
Bad luck and poor 'tending
It was a frustrating season for Kucherov, and understandably so. It was an exasperating few months for everyone involved with the Lightning - they missed out on the playoffs by a point, finishing with only three fewer points than they had in 2015-16, when they were Eastern Conference finalists.
But Kucherov, he put the Lightning on his back down the stretch, almost willing Tampa Bay to the playoffs - he had a remarkable 12 goals and 22 points in 14 games in March. They came up short. That's hockey. That's life. And the truth is, injuries and poor goaltending were to blame.
If Stamkos played even half the season, the Lightning are in. If he played 10 more games. If he was able to play just one more game.
If Johnson played a few more games, if Boyle wasn't traded ... you can go on and on. But another and more obvious reality is that Tampa Bay didn't get the goaltending it needed to ensure a postseason berth.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
The Lightning finished with a .910 save percentage, 16th in the league. Playoff teams that finished lower were St. Louis (.907), Calgary (.907), and Boston (.905), so, yeah, more frustration for Kucherov.
Problem is, Kucherov didn't call out his goalies. He made a point not to. He's apparently on record - again, in Russian - saying the following about his teammates up front:
"When we played together and I made a pass, they even were not expecting this. That's why this season was hard for me despite (my) good stats."
He wasn't passing the puck to Ben Bishop, who certainly had not been paid, set to hit unrestricted free agency July 1, and was traded at the deadline. And Kucherov wasn't passing the puck to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with a .917 save percentage (decent, but not worth writing home about) in his first season as Tampa Bay's starter - after signing a three-year, $10.5-million contract extension. In other words, he was one of the guys who did get paid.
Numbers aren't everything ...
No one's arguing this is as simple as points-per-game averages, on an annual and career level. A heck of a lot more than that goes into what makes a hockey team successful. And the truth is, Tampa Bay has some work to do in its own end:
(Courtesy: Hockey Viz)
But this can't be what general manager Steve Yzerman wants to be dealing with ahead of a crucial offseason - arguably the most important in franchise history. Drouin, Johnson, Palat are restricted free agents July 1.
"I'm not going to make a big deal out of everything," Yzerman said about the reported comments, according to Smith. "Kucherov is a great player, been a great teammate. And we'll get things sorted out after the World Championships."
He's looking forward to it, no doubt.
Next time, Mr. Kucherov, help us out and name names. Or simply blame the hockey gods. That'll go over better in the room.
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