Sunday, 4 a.m.
Well, that didn’t take long.
One game, you’re alone on the top of the mountain. You’ve had more assists than anyone in the history of the franchise.
The next day, you’re moving over for a teammate.
One game after Victor Hedman became the all-time assists leader with the Lightning, he was tied by Nikita Kucherov in a 5-1 victory over Detroit. Both players are at 600 assists.
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Kucherov did it with a three-point night — a goal and two assists — as his team won its 25th game of the season.
“Six hundred assists,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “I’ve probably seen every one of them. There’s not enough time to talk about what Kuch has meant to this organization. To this league, quite frankly. He’s a generational player. Hopefully, we’ll get to see hundreds more in the future.”
The Bolts have struggled early in recent games, but in this one, they got off to quick starts. In the first period, Brayden Point scored just 2:02 into the game. Then, in the second period, the Bolts scored 16 seconds into the period, and again 110 seconds in, and once again 238 seconds in.
It wasn’t just offense. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had 39 saves — he has 73 in his last two games. The Bolts killed five of six penalties.
Scoring for the Bolts were Brayden Point (27), Jake Guentzel (23), Kucherov (21), Mitchell Chaffee (8) and Darren Raddysh (2).
The Bolts are on the road on Monday night against Toronto. The puck drops at 7 p.m.