THE RETURN OF KUCHEROV – Tampa’s Dark Knight, returns after almost three months

This morning Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper, via pre-conference, announced that Kucherov is “ready to go” and that he “expects him to play” in tonight’s home matchup against the Calgary Flames. This comes after The Bolts placed center Riley Nash on waiver yesterday and reassigned defensemen Darren Raddysh to the AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch. Placing Nash on waivers threw all Bolts fans into a frenzy on Kucherov’s return, as it gave the option to activate Kucherov off of the IR list.

On October 16th against the Washington Capitals, Kucherov left the ice in the third period due to an injury sustained during the game. In his post-game press conference, Head Coach Jon Cooper said that there was no reason to “hit the panic button” Two days later, Kucherov was would be out for a while and shortly after was placed on long-term IR. After undergoing successful lower-body surgery, Kucherov has been seen skating with the team in recent weeks, teasing the imminent return of the goalscoring machine and Tampa Bay Lightning Power Play cornerstone.