Have the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nikita Kucherov played the rest of the NHL from the start?

It didn’t take long for Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov to deposit to his 2021 playoff goals account. With his pair of power-play scorers in the second period (and an assist to the third period for good measure), the 2018-19 Hart Trophy winner helped the Bolts pass their domestic rivals, the Florida Panthers, in a wild Stanley Cup 1 game on Sunday night.

If I had told you Kucherov scored two in the Lightning’s first playoff game immediately after winning the Stanley Cup last season, you wouldn’t have blinked. What would have caught you off guard was that Kucherov’s breakout performance came as a surprise to those of us who watched the 2020-21 regular season.

This, of course, is due to the fact that Kucherov played exactly zero games in the regular season, sidelined as he recovered from hip surgery in the offseason. Kucherov’s (non-existent) place in the Lightning’s regular season roster angered some fans, who insisted the team were holding Kucherov to bypass the salary cap.

Without wanting to get bogged down in an esoteric discussion about the cap, the grievance has to do with how the Lightning leveraged the Long Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) to spend well beyond the official salary cap.

By leaving Kucherov on LTIR throughout the regular season, the Lightning freed themselves to create a team in line with the cap, but spent an additional $ 9.5 million (Kucherov’s cap). Now, with roster limits and the playoff salary cap lifted, Kucherov is back in a lineup costing just under $ 100 million in a league with a supposed salary cap just north of $ 80 million. dollars.

Considering the timing of Kucherov’s return and the fact that his 2020-2021 debut didn’t suggest any rust, it’s hard to suggest that the Lightning wasn’t at least partly creative in handling his cap (and with a lot Caution) to exploit the LTIR Problem.

Nikita Kucherov took over for Tampa Bay Lightning in Stanley Cup playoffs

However, as annoying as this smart accounting may be to fans of other NHL contenders, the anger against the Lightning is misplaced. The problem here is the salary cap itself, rather than its circumvention by Tampa.

If there is a limit, profiting is part of the game. This is one of the biggest problems with a cap: even if it is in place, richer teams (who can spend and exceed the official cap for say nothing of off-ice spending) continue to exert an advantage over poorer teams. Instead of facilitating economic equality, a salary cap means wealthy teams have to leverage their financial strength through loopholes and players see their salaries limited due to an artificial salary cap.

Tampa isn’t the first team to use this kind of financial squabble to get around the league’s salary cap. The team also took a significant risk by putting a former MVP on the board for an entire regular season. Before you wave your finger at the Lightning for bypassing the salary cap, ask yourself what that cap continues to be used for if such maneuvers are not only possible but prior.

Peep this fake pass from Nikita Kucherov. #Stanley Cup

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– NHL (@NHL) May 17, 2021

Before closing, I would be remiss if I did not dwell a bit more on Kucherov’s actual performance. Rather than bringing his star winger back into the roster, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper put Kucherov on the front row alongside Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat. His 19:21 ice time was about two minutes shorter than his post-season average from the fall, but it was still a thirty-second increase from his 2019-20 regular season. YOURS.

At five to five, Kucherov’s numbers were not exceptional; according to Natural Stat Trick, it posted a comfortable 53.13 CF% and disappointing 47.54 xG%. He was active in all three zones and managed to grab a breakaway (on which he fumbled the puck while attempting a backhand forehand on Sergei Bobrovsky).

In my eyes, Kucherov was better than the xG number above suggested, and of course any single game possession number should be taken with a grain of salt.

Lightning strikes twice! It’s two for Nikita Kucherov (@ 86Kucherov). #Stanley Cup

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🇨🇦: https://t.co/1GLhBWlIHD @Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/3sOWjPbPuB

– NHL (@NHL) May 17, 2021

Where Kucherov proved unambiguously brilliant was in the power play. He tallied his three points on the man advantage, wasting no time repositioning himself in his office along the right half-wall. For his first scorer, Kucherov demonstrated the devastating ease with which he operates by knocking over the broken stick of Panthers defender Gustav Forsling before timing a rocket in front of Bobrovsky.

He scored an almost identical goal later in the period and added a scintillating assist to tie the game in the third period, faking a slapped shot attempt at an untimed third base and instead slipping the puck towards Point that was left with a wide open. net to shoot.

In Game 1, the Tampa Bay Lightning power play performed at its mesmerizing best – whipping the puck around the Panther zone at breakneck speed. If Florida can’t find a way to curb the Bolts’ extra-man effectiveness, they have little hope of winning a playoff series. It wasn’t much of a one-man show, but not having played a single regular season game in 2020-21, Nikita Kucherov shattered any illusion that he would arrive in the playoffs with rust to get rid of. For the rest of the NHL, that’s a scary thought.