There was a jolt of excitement running though the Tampa Bay Lightning fandom this weekend when word surfaced that Nikita Kucherov was on the ice during the morning skate. Excitement for Lightning fans, disgruntlement for the rest of the NHL. It’s always fun when people get upset at the same thing multiple times.
When it was first announced that Kucherov was undergoing hip surgery and his recovery would last roughly the entire regular season, fans outside of the Tampa area cried foul...well, actually they cried circumvention. How dare the Lightning cast aside the rules that all other teams must abide by and work with their own salary cap?