Thursday, 4 a.m.
The longer he remains in Tampa Bay, the more the Lightning is justfied is asking for Nikita Kucherov in a trade.
Yeah, yeah. The Lightning keeps saying they won't trade Kuchereov. Still, the articles keep coming.
And Kucherov keeps performing.
In a game that was threatening to go the wrong way, Kucherov took over and made sure the Bolts beat Buffalo. Kucherov had a hat trick -- the eighth of his career -- and an assist in the third period to lead the Bolts to an 8-3 win,
The Bolts scored their eight goals on just 22 shots.
The Lightning seemed to be on their way late in the second period, leading 4-0. But the Sabres scored twice late in the period and again 33 seconds into the third to make it a 4-3 game. It seemed to be another example of the Bolts not closing the door on an opponent.
Kuch killed that momentum, however. He scored his sixth goal of the season with 1:25 gone in the period. He scoerd his seventh at 4:11. He scored his eighth at 14:13. And he assisted on a Brandon Hagel goal at 15:06.
Kucherov now has 25 points on the season.
Charle-Edouard D'Astous had a plus five for the Bolts.
Hagel had two goals on the nght. John Carlson had a goal and two assists. Scott Sabourin and Yanni Gourde scored goals.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 of 31 shots.
The Bolts travel to Columbus to play the Blue Jackets tonight at 7.