Why NHL Legends Marvel At Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov

The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight, with the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning hosting the upstart darlings of Quebec, the Montreal Canadiens. For the Lightning, all eyes will be on their superstar who missed the entire regular season, only to come back and lead them in scoring during the playoffs -- former Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov. The Athletic's Joe Smith has been following the Lightning up close all season, and he joins us to discuss how Kucherov managed to regain his red hot form after five months off, what we learned about Kucherov and the Lightning during a hard-fought seven-game series against the New York Islanders, and why NHL legends like Doug Gilmour and Scotty Bowman think the Russian star is so special.

More of Joe Smith's Lightning coverage:

https://theathletic.com/author/joe-smith/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.