Nikita Kucherov added another notch to his “Kucherov is good at hockey” belt as he took home the NHL First Star of the Week honors for the week ending January 28th, 2024. His superb stat line of 4 goals and 5 assists in 3 games (all wins for the Tampa Bay Lightning) was tops in the league over those seven days. Kucherov posted multiple-points in all three games to run his overall point streak to 4 games. Which, to be honest, isn’t out of the ordinary. Six times this season he’s had a streak of four or more games with at least one point on his way to a league-leading 85 points (32 goals, 53 assists). Connor McDavid (4 goals, 4 assists) was the second star while fellow Floridian Mathew Tkachuk (4 goals, 4 assists) was the third star.
It’s the third time this season he’s achieved Star of the Week status. Kucherov was the first star for the week ending December 10th and the second star for the week ending November 26th.That solid week helped him eard the First Star of the Month award for November. For a historical perspective, in his MVP season of 2018-19, Kucherov was the third star twice, the first star once, and first star of the month twice (December and February). With 32 games left in this season, he has the chance to better those numbers.
Kucherov kicked off his week with a hat trick and four points against Philadelphia in the Lightning’s 6-3 win. In their next 6-3 win (against Arizona) he put up one goal and two assists. Then he capped it off with two assists against New Jersey in, you guessed it, another 6-3 Lightning victory. In January he posted 24 points (6 goals, 18 assists) in 12 games. Congratulations are in order for Los Angeles and Buffalo, the only teams to hold him pointless in the month (the Lightning still won those games). Meanwhile he posted 8 multi-point games and just two games where he only had one point.
He’s needed every single point he racked up this week to remain atop the league scoring mountain as Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon is in second place with 84 points. The two are building some excitement as they trade places and keep posting multi-point games. The Avalanche star will have a chance to build a little lead as Colorado will play twice (February 5th and 6th) before the Lightning return to the ice from their bye week and the All-Star bye week. Circle February 15th for a heck of a game as Colorado is in Tampa for a head-to-head match-up.
With the way he’s been producing this year, it’s not the last time we’ll see Kuch as one of the stars of the week.
Some of his highlights from the past week.
How about a nice cross-ice feed between two defenders right where The Captain likes it:
I’m not sure folks realize just how good this pass it to Mikey Eyssimont. Victor Hedman’s shot is a rocket and Kuch already knows what he is going to do with it before the puck hits the end boards. He has to, because if he waits just a second, that opening isn’t there.
He keeps the play going behind the net and just kind of disappears. Brayden Point’s pass is hurried and not quite on target. It doesn’t matter as Kucherov kicks it to his blade and puts it into the net.
