Nikita Kucherov injury crashes mighty Lightning offense
Just over five minutes into Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Tampa Bay Lightning suffered their biggest loss of the playoffs.
Nikita Kucherov flew head-first into the goal post while trying to take a puck from Corey Crawford and put it into the net. He went down staggered to the bench and couldn’t continue. Without the playoffs second-leading scorer out the rest of the game, the Lightning couldn’t get more than that one goal in their 2-1 Game 5 loss at home.
Suddenly ‘The Triplets’ line became a duo of Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat.
After the game Tampa coach Jon Cooper said he hadn’t received an update on Kucherov yet. If the dynamic forward is too injured to play Game 6 Monday in Chicago, it could severely hurt Tampa’s hopes at a comeback from down 3-2 in the series.
“Naturally he’s a point-per-game guy in these playoffs,” Cooper said. “He’s a big part of our offense. In a series where goals are at a premium, it’s tough when you lose one of your guys.
Naturally losing a guy like Kuch, you don’t want to lose guys like that.”
Cooper tried Jonathan Drouin with ‘The Triplets’ but ultimately, Drouin’s defensive shortcomings made him tough to trust.
“Obviously you hope (Kucherov’s) okay, it was tough not to see him come back,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “That’s what the playoffs is. You’re going to go through some adverse moments. He’s a big player, clutch guy for us who has played extremely well to get us here. Whether he goes or not, we have guys capable of stepping up and we have no choice but to find a way.”
The Lightning should have enough offense to overcome the loss of Kucherov. This was a team that scored the most goals in the regular season.
But captain Steven Stamkos has lost his way this series. Through six games he’s notched just one assist. He looks like Round 1 Stamkos against the Red Wings – a series where he didn’t score a goal. In that grouping of seven games, other Tampa forwards picked up the slack. Tyler Johnson had six goals in seven games against Detroit. Stamkos’ lack of power was a moot point.
In the Cup Final Johnson has scored just once. In this tightly-played series, Kucherov has been the only Tampa forward who has truly shaken loose – scoring a goal and adding an assist in Game 3.
“We’ve got to find a way to score,” Stamkos said. “Two goals in the last two games … that’s enough to stick around in a game with how tight the series is but we need more.”
Stamkos and a lot of the Lightning have sort of gotten away with not scoring this series. But if the goals don’t finally come in Game 6, Stanley won’t have a tan.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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