How Have the Panthers Quieted Kucherov? Don’t Ask Maurice

FORT LAUDERDALE — Nikita Kucherov is one of the NHL’s premier scorers, the Tampa Bay Lightning star leading the NHL in scoring over the past two seasons.

That’s during the regular season.

Kucherov has struggled in the playoffs, going 12 straight postseason games without scoring a goal.

The last seven of those 12 have come against the Florida Panthers.

So, Paul Maurice, what has your team been doing to keep Kucherov — who has 81 goals and 265 points over the past two seasons — in check?

“How hard did you think I would bite on that?” Maurice responded to the question from a certain local reporter.

“Did you wake up this morning and think ‘I’ll fire one out about the leading scorer in the league who hasn’t scored and see if the coach says something stupid’?”

So, Maurice declined comment.

He didn’t want to talk about Kucherov’s scoring struggles during last year’s series, either.

That is understandable considering Kucherov led the NHL in points (121) and was 13th in goals (37) this season.

Only he has not scored a playoff goal since Game 1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round in 2023.

That was over two years ago.

So, yeah, Kucherov is going to get rolling again at some point. Maurice doesn’t want to be the one to get him going.

But there is no getting around how well the Panthers have held one of the best players in the game completely in check.

Watching them, whenever Kucherov gets onto the ice, tells you why: Kucherov has had very little time to do much of anything in the offensive zone.

Aside from a couple of breakaways, Kucherov has not had many looks with the puck.

Through the first two games, Kucherov has three total shots on goal after averaging 3.4 per game during the regular season.

In last year’s five-game series loss to the Panthers, he averaged 1.6 shots per game.

”It is definitely a team effort and, in the playoffs, you get extra stingy,’’ Evan Rodrigues said. “You finish more checks, you are more hyper-focused on the defensive side of the puck. During the regular season, things can get a little loose. It’s hard to play games at 100 percent elite pace.”

Kucherov is getting the puck off — he had five shot attempts (shots on goal/blocked shots/misses) on Tuesday, eight on Thursday — but the Panthers have done a good job of keeping his legit scoring chances down.

Per MoneyPuck.com, Kucherov has an expected goals rate of 0.3 through the first two games.

“Nobody’s on the scoresheet,” said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, whose team has been outscored 8-2 in the first two games of the series. “We’ve scored two goals in two games, that’s not the recipe for success.’’

When Kucherov is on the ice, the Panthers simply gravitate to him; when the Lightning set up in the offensive zone, the Panthers collapse on Kucherov making sure he knows they are on him.

“I think once the playoffs hit, you focus on guys like that, right? He is going to get his looks, going to get his chances,’’ Rodrigues said.

“You can’t necessarily stop a guy like that. I think we have done a good job as a team in containing him, keeping him to the outside and not letting him feel comfortable. He is a guy you pay attention to.’’

2025 NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

EASTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND: GAME 3

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING @ FLORIDA PANTHERS 

Panthers Lead Best-of-7 Series 2-0

• When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• National TV: TBS/truTV
• Streaming: Panthers+, MAX
• Radio: WAXY 790-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Series Schedule — Game 1: Florida 6, @ Tampa Bay 2; Game 2: Florida 2, @ Tampa Bay 0; Game 3 at Florida: Saturday, 1 (TBS/Scripps); Game 4 at Florida: Monday, 7 (ESPN/Scripps);Game 5* at Tampa: Wednesday (TBA); Game 6* at Florida: Friday, May 2 (TBA); Game 7* at Tampa: Sunday, May 4 (TBA).
• Regular Season Series: Tied 2-2
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 79-53-19, 10 ties
• All-Time Postgame Series: Tampa Bay Leads 2-1 (won 2021 first-round, 2022 ECS); Florida d. Lightning 4-1 in 2024 first-round.