The Tampabeja unit announced that Kucherov would lie under the scalpel next week, but would later recover from the injury, so he would not go on the field in the regular season.
“Given the recovery period for this type of injury, we are confident that Kucherov could be healthy for the playoffs,” said Julien Brisebois, the club’s general manager.
Kučerov informed the team about the problems with the pelvis already in December, but even before that he was also in the playoffs with this ailment. The striker of the “Play-off” Russian national team stood out in 25 games with seven goals and 27 assists.
“No one loves hockey more than Nikita Kucherov. I know that the inability to help the team makes him very sad,” the general manager added. “I also have no doubt that he will work hard to join the team as soon as possible.”
The Lightning will play the first match of the season on January 13, meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks. Before the game, a banner will be hung on the ceiling of the arena, which will forever testify to the achievement of the Tampa Bay unit at the end of last season – the victory in the Stanley Cup.
Significantly, during the last three seasons, Kucherov has missed only four games in total, but has never played less than 74 matches, apart from the debut season – 52 games.
Over the past six seasons, the striker has scored 212 goals and 317 assists in 463 games, which is shared by the best result with Blackhawks striker Patrick Keynes.
During his career, Kucherov played 515 games in the NHL, with 547 points (221 + 326). He also has 90 elimination games at his expense, in which he has accumulated 95 points (36 + 59).
In the 2018/19 season, Kucherov scored 128 points (41 + 87) in 82 games, for which he earned the Hart, Arthur Rosa and the league’s most valuable player awards.
It has already been reported that in the regular championship from January 13 to May 8, the teams will play 56 games, thus the main tournament will not overlap with the 2021 World Championship, which is scheduled for May 21 to June 6, with part of the championship taking place in Latvia.
The elimination tournament will run until July.
Next season’s plan is for Canadian teams to play in the Northern Division for one season only, without meeting with US teams in the regular season.
Likewise, US teams will only compete with their division unit. The United States will have three divisions with eight teams each.
The four strongest teams in each division will qualify for the Stanley Cup.
The NHL has also given the green light to play in other cities and arenas when teams cannot play at home.
Most of the teams will start training camps on January 3, but the seven teams that were not in the tournament of the final phase of the previous season can meet together from December 31. Test matches will not be played.
NHL teams currently include five Latvian hockey players: Elvis Merzlikins, Matīss Kivlenieks (both – Columbus “Blue Jackets”), Zemgus Girgensons (Buffalo “Sabers”), Rūdolfs Balcers (Ottawa “Senators”), Teodors Blugers (Pittsburgh “Penguins”) .
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