nikita-kucherov Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Deadspin presents the Two-Thirds Through the Season NHL Awards
After working up a third of a season award post just so my editor would have something to publish during the Holidays, it only seems right that we do an equally meaningless one with some teams having cracked 60 games played. No, 82 doesn’t divide evenly by three, and there really isn’t a distinctive...

NHL 'tough guys' are always cheapshot artists; The cause of increased scoring revealed
For a sport that really loves to tout how tough its players are, hockey players don’t seem to have much tolerance for anything that makes them feel bad in the slightest. At least on the ice. Morgan Rielly of Toronto was just the latest to wet himself when an opponent reminded him just a little too m...

Nikita Kucherov makes mockery of All-Star Weekend; Here's to Devin Hester; The Royals are finally spending?
There’s a fallacy out there that any All-Star Game is “for the fans.” That idea flew out the window long ago, especially for the NBA and NHL. The All-Star Game is merely a junket for the league’s biggest sponsors to get the chance to hobnob with the game’s top stars, a reward for their support of th...

Nikita Kucherov exposed NHL All-Star weekend for the farce that it is
There’s a fallacy out there that any All-Star Game is “for the fans.” That idea flew out the window long ago, especially for the NBA and NHL. The All-Star Game is merely a junket for the league’s biggest sponsors to get the chance to hobnob with the game’s top stars, a reward for their support of th...

What do the Edmonton Oilers want with Corey Perry?
The Edmonton Oilers have been the NHL’s hottest team for a good long while now. They’ve won 13 in a row, and since that woeful 2-9-1 start, they’ve gone 24-6-0, which over a full season would be a 131-point pace. They’ve vaulted themselves out of the Motel For Men where the Sharks live, that they sp...

The NHL Eastern Conference playoff race is a mess
We’re halfway through the NHL season, which is now meant as a device to make everyone look stupid. Or really, to make me look stupid, which isn’t all that hard, because I’m stupid. After 41 games, we should have an idea of who is what and who’s going where. But in the Eastern Conference, we really d...

Let’s hand out some NHL awards. It’s Christmas after all!
Generally, this comes up at the quarter-mark or halfway through the season. But hey, it’s Christmas, so let’s hand out some Christmastime NHL awards just to get into the spirit of the thing! Who is leading in the various categories that the league likes to hand out some weird looking silverware for ...

2023 NHL points leaders
This article is based on data from Sportradar....

2023 NHL goals leaders
This article is based on data from Sportradar....

2023 NHL assists leaders
This article is based on data from Sportradar....

There's a pretty good chance of Lightning crashing this season in Tampa
Whatever happens to the Tampa Bay Lightning this upcoming season, it’ll all have been worth it. ...

Jack Eichel beat Connor McDavid to a Stanley Cup
Sometimes, you just wear it:...

That’s the difference between the goalies
Hockey — as weird, random, and boorish as it can get — is a pretty simple game at times. The storylines coming out of Game 3 were that the Tampa Bay Lightning authored some market correction to get back into the Stanley Cup Final after a 6-2 win to get the series to 2-1. And with no team having won ...

Steph Curry and Steven Stamkos are having an Old Guy Summer
Well, spring. But whatever....

It’s OK, Matt Swarmer, Chicagoans were too drunk or distracted to remember that
The Chicago Cubs matter insomuch as they give the fine people of the Windy City an excuse to day drink and eat hot dogs. Outside of that one year, this season isn’t that much different from most others. They’re 23-35, 10 games back of the division leading St. Louis Cardinals, and nine games out of t...

This looks like Connor McDavid’s time
This could finally be it. The NHL is starving for its next superstar. Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby’s first-round exits with Washington and Pittsburgh left a void for a television-ratings hockey juggernaut....

If the Lightning can’t choke you out, Andrei Vasilevskiy will
The narrative, the easiest one to reach for which is generally what most hockey observers want to do before hitting the bar, is the two-time defending champ Tampa Bay Lightning must be playing great defense because the Florida Panthers have scored just three goals in three games. And while that’s no...

Here’s to feelin’ good all the time
The NHL’s second round hasn’t gotten off to the most rousing start. The Lightning did that efficiency thing where they play just well enough for just long enough to win, even if it did involve Nikita Kucherov turning Aaron Ekblad into a tetherball set. The Avalanche looked unstoppable, and the Range...

Fun police here! You can’t do that Kucherov!
Rules are meant to be broken. That’s the saying, isn’t it? Where there’s a boundary, it must be tested in order to push the limits of the sport you’re playing. That was hockey innovator Roger Neilson’s ideology when he was a professional coach. From 1977 to 2002, Neilson was a menace to NHL official...

Mohamed Salah is on one
I suppose being as analytic-minded as I can get that I’m going to be hypocritical here. It doesn’t help (or hurt, depending on your point of view) that I love Mohamed Salah in every sense of the word, to an extent that my vulnerability is teetering on “highly damaging.” So take that as you will....