As the season ends, Tampa Bay Lightning players reflect on the ups and downs of a very tumultuous season.
Question: You guys made a heck of a run down the stretch to come close. What are you the most impressed about the way that this team played?
Nikita Kucherov: Good execution.
Question: Is getting 40 goals special to you? I mean, obviously not many guys get to that.
Kucherov: I mean we didn’t make the playoffs. That’s the big thing. I don’t think about my goals.
Question: Do you think about, with the way this team is built, that you can come back again stronger next year?
Kucherov: I hope so.
Question: You played a lot with Brayden Point here as the season went on. Talk about how he’s grown as the season went on.
Kucherov: He’s been good for us. A good player. He showed at the end of the year that he can play in the league. I think he got [to be a] better player than he was in the beginning.
Question: What did you think of Jonathan Drouin, the way he was able to kind of take off from the playoffs last year to now?
Kucherov: Happy for him.
Question: Are you going to play in the Worlds [IIHF World Championships]?
Kucherov: I don’t know.
Question: Going to miss talking to us?
Kucherov: No. [reporters laugh]
