Montreal Canadiens: Nikita Kucherov Proves Himself Least Classy Player in NHL

The Montreal Canadiens entered the Stanley Cup Final knowing they had a tall task at hand.

They were facing the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and were not being picked by anyone to win the series.

This wasn’t news to the Canadiens, who were not the consensus pick against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets or Vegas Golden Knights on their way to the Stanley Cup Final. But taking down the team that won it all last year and had pretty much the same roster again was going to be difficult.

It proved to be impossible for the Canadiens. They lost the first three games of the series, before winning Game 4 on home ice at the Bell Centre. It was an overtime victory thanks to a Josh Anderson goal in the extra frame, after he stormed his way to the front of the net and knocked in a loose puck.

The Canadiens would be eliminated in Game 5 in Tampa Bay, losing the decisive game by a score of 1-0.

It was a painful defeat for the Canadiens, and that was evident when watching them console each other on the ice after the game, and also listening to some of the players, like Brendan Gallagher, getting emotional in post game press conferences.

Carey Price placed the blame on himself when meeting with the media, with captain Shea Weber stepping in to defend Price, and claiming the players in front of the Habs goaltender were more at fault than the superstar goalie.

It was pretty typical stuff from the Canadiens players. A lot of players saying they were proud of their teammates, they wished they could have won for their fans, everyone battled every night to get this far…. etc etc.

That is, except for Nikita Kucherov.

The Lightning star winger led the postseason in points, though he was held to just one in the last four games of the series with the Canadiens.

Instead of using his time at the microphone to thank the fans of Tampa Bay, he chose to call out the fans of the Montreal Canadiens for their actions at the Bell Centre in Game 4.

Did these fans say something off side? No.

Did they throw things at the Lightning players on the bench? No.

Did they try to steal something from the Lightning team? No.

Surely they must have done something serious if Kucherov needed to bring it up during his media availability minutes after winning the Stanley Cup, right?

Well, apparently Kucherov was upset that the fans in Montreal celebrated the Game 4 win.

The first question Kucherov was asked was “How would you describe your emotions after doing what you guys just did?”

His wandering response touched on how good his goaltender played, before saying “Montreal fans celebrated last game like they won the Stanley Cup. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Their final was last round?”

Now, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup fair and square (aside from being $18 million over the salary cap) and Kucherov was a huge part of it. He is an exceptional hockey player, but why in the world does he need to take a shot at the opposing team’s fan base for celebrating a win in the Stanley Cup Final?

It just showed a complete lack of class at a time when 99% of the league’s players would have talked about their teammates and their coaching staff and their family. Instead, Kucherov chose to throw a stone at the fans of the Canadiens for being excited when Josh Anderson scored an overtime goal in the Stanley Cup Final.

Who does that? Every pro athlete is trained in media relations and throwing another fan base under the bus, for celebrating a win no less, is not high on the priority list. It was so telling that the question was very open ended, and instead of saying anything about Victor Hedman or his linemates or any of his coaches he has had in his life, Kucherov chose to praise one teammate, and that is fellow Russian Andrei Vasilevskiy, and make fun of Canadiens fans.

This would be ridiculous enough if Kucherov didn’t celebrate goals until the Stanley Cup was handed out, but here he is losing his mind because the Lightning won Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final a year ago:

So, Habs fans can’t celebrate a Stanley Cup Final win, but Kucherov can go bonkers in Game 2 of the third round? Okay, got it Kucherov.

This coming from a guy who delayed his surgery long enough that he would be on long term injury reserve for the whole regular season and the Lightning could spend $9 million over the salary cap for the year. That’s not technically breaking a rule, but it certainly bent the rule book as far as possible. Especially when he was magically at 100% for Game 1 of the opening round of the postseason.

Maybe it was the Bud Light talking. I mean, he was probably on his second of the night. Although, I thought Russians were able to handle boatloads of vodka, so why are a couple of Bud Light’s spinning this guy out of control so quickly?

They weren’t. He just chose to show a complete lack of class. Hopefully Kucherov saw a video of Carey Price taking a second to shake hands with the referees and linesmen after the game and learns a thing or two about how a real pro acts.