NHL fans bash Nikita Kucherov for dismal goal stat for Lightning in recent playoffs

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov led the NHL with 121 points during the regular season. However, his playoff scoring struggles persisted in the Round 1 series against the Florida Panthers, where he failed to pot any goals but recorded four assists.

Nikita Kucherov has failed to score in 15 playoff games and will need to wait until next year’s playoffs to add to his postseason goal tally.

After the Lightning’s elimination in Game 5, fans on X (Twitter) slammed Nikita Kucherov for his lack of postseason goals. One tweeted:

“Regular season merchant, ghost when it matters.”

Another chimed in:

“Give him Buffalo on a random tuesday night or he retires.”

Here are some of the other top reactions on X:

“It’s almost as if kucherov vasilevsky and the rest of the bolts struggle to play when they at the cap and not way over it,” a third fan tweeted.

“Another Auston Matthews? Not really he has won in his life,” one X user posted.

“Even in the Leafs series against them I had no fear of him 5v5, only on the power play. This is going back to 2022,” said another.

“Same thing with Matthews and Marner and Nylander,” another chimed in.

Nikita Kucherov and Bolts eliminated by the Panthers in Game 5

On Wednesday, the Florida Panthers completed the first task of defending their Stanley Cup title after eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 in Round 1.

Gage Goncalves opened the scoring for the Bolts at 2:33 into the first period. Carter Verhaeghe cut it for the Panthers with a power-play goal at 5:21. Anton Lundell increased the Cats’ lead to 2-1 at 10:06 before Nick Paul tied it for the Bolts as the two teams headed to the second period.

Aleksander Barkov restored the Panthers’ lead to 3-2 just 52 seconds into the period. Jake Guentzel scored the final goal for the Bolts on the night to make it 3-3. Sam Bennett gave Florida a 4-3 lead before heading into the final period.

Eetu Loustarinen extended the Panthers’ lead to 5-3 before Bennett’s empty netter at 15:36 secured the Round 1 series for his team. The Florida Panthers will play the winner of the Leafs-Senators series in the second round.