Bolts Success Shows Up On Leaderboard
The Tampa Bay Lightning are off to a quick start to the 2017-2018 season. They open play Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricane with a 7-1-1 mark and are getting contributions from all over their roster. Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov were named the NHL’s top two stars of the week for the week ending October 23rd.
Nikita Kucherov is tied for the league league in goals with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals with 10.
Steven Stamkos leads the league with 15 assists and line mate Vladislav Namestnikov checks in tied for fourth in the league with seven. Namestnikov is centering a line featuring the high scoring Stamkos and Kucherov. No surprise that he is well on his way to pacing his career high 35 points (2015-2016).
Stamkos leads the NHL with 18 points and Kucherov is right behind him with 16. Brayden Point and Namestnikov are tied for sixth in the league with 10. Last year Point notched 40 points (18-22–40) in 68 games. He is well on his way to besting that total this season.
Kucherov (6.9) and Stamkos (5.6) are on top of the goals created leaderboard.
Not Just The Lightning’s Offense:
Anton Stralman is tied for the league lead in plus/minus which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Since joining the Bolts in the 2014-2015 season he ranks third in the NHL in plus/minus for defenseman with 49. He trails only Ryan Suter (Min) who is credited with 50 and Ryan McDonagh (NYR) who checks in with a +66 rating.
Andrei Vasilevskiy leads the league in games played (8) and wins (7). He has faced more shots (282) against and made more saves (263) than any other goalie.
Mikhail Sergachev, acquired for Jonathan Drouin, is tied for second among all rookies with 8 points (3-5–8) trailing only Will Butcher (NYJ) who has 9. Drouin has just 5 points (2-3–5) for the Canadiens, a total that leads the team.
