Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov, the NHL’s leading playoff scorer, leaves after one shift
NHL leading playoff scorer Nikita Kucherov left Game 6 of the Stanley Cup semifinal after one shift Wednesday night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning winger had gone to check New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal and was clearly laboring afterward. After finishing his shift, he went bent over to the dressing room and didn’t return. He still wasn’t on the bench for the second period or start of the third period, though there was no official word on his status.
Replays showed that earlier in the shift, he had been knocked to the ice by a hard cross-check from the Islanders’ Scott Mayfield. That infraction went uncalled.
Here is the sequence of events: