Some more thoughts on…the New Jersey game, Nikita Kucherov, and Winter Classic Sweaters

We are back with another subscribers-only post! If you have the means, please subscribe so that you too can be part of these wonderful, occasional posts. Today, we\'re going to dive into a couple of topics that are top of mind on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.

First up, the Tampa Bay Lightning\'s convincing 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. It may be a bridge too far to say it was their most convincing win of the season, but if we were to rank the Lightning\'s ten wins on the year, it would definitely be in the top half. You know what, let\'s go ahead and do it really quickly without thinking too much:

10 - 4-3 over Anaheim

9 - 4-3 over Boston

8 - 4-2 over Utah

7 - 3-2 over Washington

6 - 5-2 over Nashville

5 - 2-1 (OT) over Dallas

4 - 6-3 over Vegas

3 - 5-1 over New Jersey

2 - 2-1 (OT) over Vegas

1 - 3-1 over Florida

Yes, the Florida win eeks out the solid effort over the Golden Knights simply because it was the Panthers. I can admit my bias.

Anyway, a couple of extra thoughts on the New Jersey win. One thing that stood out was that it was one of the Lightning\'s more fluid games. At times during the season, especially early on, their puck movement and their decisions looked disjointed at best. Passes were in skates or missed targets completely, breakouts were flubbed, and indecision ran rampant in the offensive zone.

Against the Devils they moved the puck quickly, they skated well, and their decisions/reads with the puck were spot on. Is it a coincidence that the power play looked as crisp as it has at any point during the last five years? Probably not. Even on the opportunity that they didn\'t cash in on, they moved the puck well, were first on loose pucks, and maintained zone time against a Devils\' penalty-kill unit that was pretty aggressive.

A large part of that was due to Nikita Kucherov looking like the Kucherov that has been in the running for the Hart Trophy the last three seasons. It is kind of funny that a player who has recorded a point in 11 of his 17 games, and has 18 points seems to be having an off year, but he has set such a high bar in his performance that it did seem like he was struggling a bit.

Any great offensive player is going to have a lot of giveaways on his record. Among the top ten in the NHL this season are David Pastrnak (4th), Jack Eichel (5th), Jack Hughes (7th), and Connor McDavid (10th). It\'s part of the tradeoff that comes with a hockey mind that doesn\'t operate on the same level as a regular player. Also, the best players tend to have the puck the most, and hockey is a game of mistakes, ergo, they make more \"mistakes\" than the typical player. For the record, Kucherov is 33rd on the official list of giveaways this season.

That being said, it did seem like he wasn\'t quite dialed in over the first quarter of the season. A lot of passes that we normally see him connect on were just a little bit off, and ended up in the skates or past the stick of the intended recipient. He would be visibly frustrated on occasion, as he is wont to be when things on the ice don\'t play out as they do in his head.

Last night he was most definitely on. His pass to Guentzel on the hat trick goal was sublime, but throughout the entire sequence on the power play he was absolutely dealing. Not to mention that his goal early in the game was slipped in from in tight into a pretty slim target. It seems like he is getting into one of those zones where nothing is impossible for him with the puck.

It\'s kind of interesting that he is heating up as the Lightning split him off of a line with Brayden Point. Of course they spent most of the power play together, but at 5v5 Kucherov was teamed up with Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli for most of the night. Natural Stat Trick had him with Point for 5:45 of 5v5 time, one of the lowest totals those two have posted since being paired together.

Point usually benefits from Kucherov\'s hot streaks, and he could really use some help, but the Lightning coaching staff might be obliged to keep them separated for the time being. It\'s not like Point is skating with cinderblocks in Kucherov\'s absence, Jake Guentzel is a pretty good player. Gage Goncalves might not be having the best year, but when he is on the game, he can dish the puck pretty well (that trio had a 5-2 edge in scoring chances against the Devils).

At some point, Kucherov and Point will be reunited full time and the good times will roll on, but it\'s really good to see Kucherov back up to his old tricks.

The Winter Classic Jerseys

On Wednesday, the NHL and Fanatics released the Winter Classic jerseys for the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers.

The Winter Classic jerseys are out. Angry Kitty Coming at You versus Classic (i.e. boring) Rangers.

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— Raw Charge ( @rawcharge.com ) November 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM

The Florida Panthers jersey is fine. Love the nod to the Jumping Kitty (but would have loved if it was the one where it is snapping the hockey stick in half). The red, blue, and yellow combination works really well, and they will probably sell a lot of them. Some of the smaller details (i.e. what you can\'t see if you\'re watching the game in the stadium) are the cooler ones like the stitching on the numbers forming chevrons to honor the state\'s military heritage as well as the fact that a silhouette of a rat is sewn into the hem label.

Now, to the Rangers. Look, we get it. It\'s hard to come up with new ideas when you are in an outdoor game seemingly every other season, but it\'s just so freaking boring. Saying it\'s \"honoring their 100th anniversary\" while basically being a copy of the Centennial sweater they\'ve been wearing is just lazy. You\'re New York for goodness sake. The marketing capital of the world, and this is the best you can come up with? Heck, we would prefer it if you slapped the red apple logo that\'s on the shoulders onto the chest.

That is at least something different than the tired old diagonal script that has been around for 100 years (and yes, I know the Lightning have done it multiple time, in fact I own a blue \"Bolts\" version ). Sometimes it feels like teams are afraid to fail with these specialty jerseys so they play it safe.

Maybe, just maybe, instead of \"honoring the past\" a NHL team will look to the future. For those of us that are old enough to remember the MLB\'s \"Turn Ahead the Clock\" promotion back in the late 1990s, it would be nice to see a team try something like this.

https://youtu.be/_G_XHVspMKA?si=3QPfY1zq3pATHpBJ

Yes, there were some absolutely hideous versions, but at least they were different. (Also, major league baseball totally needs to break them back out in a couple of seasons). These outdoor games are supposed to be fun, so take a chance and be bold, NHL.

As for the Lightning. They\'ve yet to reveal their uniform designs for their game at Raymond James. If they stick to the same timeline they did for their Stadium Series game against Nashville a few seasons ago, we should see something in early December.

Talking Points