from the CP at TSN,
The lesson Nikita Kucherov learned from childhood coach Gennady Kurdin is on display every time he laces up his skates and steps on to the ice.
Kurdin taught Kucherov the very common Russian hockey philosophy that the sport is about sacrificing for your partner. Each day at practice, Kucherov studies how his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates like to shoot, stores that knowledge and spits it out in games in the form of tape-to-tape passes.
"I like to find the open guys and give him a pass that he would be comfortable with, shoot it and score it," Kucherov said. "It just gives me more joy to just give the great pass and land it perfectly on his stick or in his wheelhouse so he can just score a goal."
This should be a joyful season for Kucherov, who leads the NHL with 86 assists and 125 points and is the best player on by far the best team. But the intensely self-critical winger who should coast to a Hart Trophy as league MVP won't be satisfied until he wins the Stanley Cup, and it's that motivation that keeps him looking to create as many goals for his teammates as he can.
"Season's been, it's OK," Kucherov said. "My job is just go out there and play. It's not my job to just talk about it. I don't look back how many games we won. The more important games is ahead of us."
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