Lightning Place Nikita Kucherov On The Long-Term Injured Reserve

Here we go again.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Lightning have placed star forward Nikita Kucherov on the Long-Term Injured Reserve. Kucherov left last Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals after an awkward collision with Garnet Hathaway and was holding his lower body as he left the ice.

Kucherov missed the entirety of the 2021 regular season after undergoing surgery on his hip. While that meant the Lightning played all 56 games without one of their best players, it also resulted in them not having Kucherov’s $9,500,000 annual salary go against their salary cap.

Kucherov returned for the playoffs, scored 32 points in 23 games, and helped the Lightning win their second of back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that Kucherov will miss an extended period of time but he doesn’t anticipate this being a full-season issue like it was last year…

“I don’t expect … ‘Kuch,’ what’d he miss, 56 games last year? That’s not happening this time,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Tuesday. “But he’s a huge part of our team and the fabric of our team. So when he’s around, it’s just good for everybody here. Good for him, good for us. Anytime he’s giving guys pointers, people listen. I assume that’ll happen.

“It’s definitely not a day-to-day thing, so we’ll wait until we get an official word, but he’s definitely out,” Cooper said Monday. “He’s going to be out for a while here. We’re not going to put a timetable on it until we get an official word. In the short term here he’s definitely out.”

The Lightning are 2-2-0 on the season. They lost their first game without Kucherov by a score of 4-1 to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.