Tampa Bay Lightning rookie Nikita Kucherov pulled off the Mario Lemieux-like feat of scoring on his first shot, in his first shift during the first game of his NHL career on Monday. He also did it against New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, which probably earns extra style points:
The 20-year-old could be interesting to watch, as he was excelling in the AHL before this call-up, scoring 24 points (including 13 goals) in 17 games for the Syracuse Crunch.
Lightning GM Steve Yzerman follows the Detroit Red Wings example of bringing prospects along slowly, but the 2011 second-rounder might just make it hard to keep him out of the NHL.