{"id":553488,"date":"2026-04-15T23:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553488\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T23:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:48:22","slug":"nikita-kucherov-caps-historic-lightning-season-as-canadiens-face-tough-first-round-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553488\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikita Kucherov caps historic Lightning season as Canadiens face tough first-round test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nNikita Kucherov caps historic Lightning season as Canadiens face tough first-round test    &#13;<br \/>\n &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Montreal Hockey Fanatics has no direct affiliation to the Montreal Canadiens, NHL or NHLPA<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/659268.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Montreal, Quebec, CAN;Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (86) plays the puck during the second period of the game against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.\" title=\"Montreal, Quebec, CAN;Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (86) plays the puck during the second period of the game against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The Tampa Bay Lightning have just sent a clear message to the Montreal Canadiens ahead of their first-round matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Forward Nikita Kucherov proved he is fully ready for the spring tournament, finishing the regular season in absolutely historic fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Journalist Erik Erlendsson also took the time to highlight his achievement on social media.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With his overtime winner against the Red Wings, Nikita Kucherov reached the 130-point mark on the season to become just the 10th player in NHL history to reach the mark in multiple seasons &#8211; Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Esposito, Dionne, McDavid, Kurri, Yzerman, Lafleur are the others.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Erik Erlendsson<\/p>\n<p>Nikita Kucherov is having a historic season and sends a message to the Canadiens<\/p>\n<p>Reaching the prestigious 130-point plateau multiple times and joining such an elite group of hockey legends shows just how dominant he has been this season.<\/p>\n<p>Martin St-Louis\u2019 squad will have the very difficult task of trying to contain this true offensive juggernaut starting this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>During his post-game press conference, number 86 didn\u2019t hide his intentions or his level of motivation.<\/p>\n<p>He firmly stated that he is very excited for the start of the NHL playoffs and assured that the entire Lightning team is fully ready for the matchup.<\/p>\n<p>This is exactly the kind of statement that sets the tone even before the official opening faceoff of the series.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the Canadiens\u2019 defense will have to keep a close eye on him every time he steps on the ice if they hope to win games!<\/p>\n<p>Nikita Kucherov, 32, has 130 points in 75 games this season. He is a 5-foot-11 forward who was selected in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n<p>POLL<\/p>\n<p>07 MINUTES AGO|4 ANSWERS<\/p>\n<p>Nikita Kucherov caps historic Lightning season as Canadiens face tough first-round test<\/p>\n<p>Will the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 defense be able to contain Nikita Kucherov?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Nikita Kucherov caps historic Lightning season as Canadiens face tough first-round test &#13; &#13;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,40,4,1335,104,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-553488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-nikita-kucherov","16":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116411401390395385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}