How bad has this series affected Kucherov's image after a historic Art Ross win?

[PuckSeparator]

I'd say he's now the second biggest chokemeister in the league, second only to undisputed choker extraordinaire, Steven Stamkos

 

[Coffey]

Will he show up to receive the trophy?

 

[MattySnipes]

We were blinded by all those man advantage points. Even-strength scoring is the way to go. Important not to rely on just the PP in the playoffs, but it definitely is something that can make or break your playoffs.

I thought Seth Jones was just fabulous in the series, one of my most favourite defensemen to watch this SC playoffs.

 

[sr edler]

It's still Mcdavid with Crosby 2nd.

Talking about points and such, Kucherov had twice the amount of points this playoffs than Crosby. In lesser games played.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

I don't think he was .95 points-per-game in 62 playoff games before this series on accident.

It's baffling some of these posters are trying to paint Kuch as a playoff choker. Baffling but not surprising, get enough idiocy this time of year.

 

[ohcomeonref]

You'd be surprised if you saw what some Tampa fans wrote before this series.
McDavid sucks because he can't get his team into his playoffs.

Tampa gets swept

It's not Kucherov's fault, the entire team sucks.

The cognitive dissonance is absurd.

This needs to be stickied.

 

[justafan22]

His hart speech is going to be so weird

 

[sr edler]

McDavid is the best and if he was in Kucherov's place in this series on that kind of team, no way would he have been neutralized like that.

McDavid in his only playoffs so far had 9 points in 13 games and was outplayed by his own teammate Draisaitl who had 16 points in 13 games in the same playoffs despite not recording a single point in the first 4 games. 9 points in 13 games isn't awful, but it sure isn't blowing anyone away either. You can say he got Kesler'd.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

Does anyone coming in here pumping up McDavid have a clue that Kucherov has been a much better playoff performer than him? Come on, you're embarassing yourselves.

 

[Hynh]

Will he show up to receive the trophy?

Hasn't shown up all month.

 

[Coffey]

You can say he got Kesler'd.

As much as I hate that piece of monkey crap, he did a damn good job of sticking to 97 for that entire series.

 

[boredmale]

Kucherov can be a modern day Marcel Dionne.

 

[Sojourn]

Does anyone coming in here pumping up McDavid have a clue that Kucherov has been a much better playoff performer than him? Come on, you're embarassing yourselves.

Kucherov has had far more opportunity. People like to focus on McDavid against Anaheim, but it’s not like he had a bad playoffs. That has also been his only opportunity thus far.

I’d also say that with that opportunity, he’s had better series than McDavid has so far, but he’s also had worse ones. Again, a product of opportunity. Every player is going to have a bad series every now and then. That includes McDavid, and it includes Kucherov.

The real issue is when it becomes a pattern for a player.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

Kucherov has had far more opportunity. People like to focus on McDavid against Anaheim, but it’s not like he had a bad playoffs. That has also been his only opportunity thus far.

I’d also say that with that opportunity, he’s had better series than McDavid has so far, but he’s also had worse ones. Again, a product of opportunity. Every player is going to have a bad series every now and then. That includes McDavid, and it includes Kucherov.

The real issue is when it becomes a pattern for a player.

Agreed but what makes it nonsensical is that you can argue, correctly, a small sample size for McDavid's underachieving but don't use 4 games out of Kucherov's impressive playoff history to downplay him in the same breath.

 

[behemolari]

I think he should be called Ku-zero from now

 

[Sojourn]

Agreed but what makes it nonsensical is that you can argue, correctly, a small sample size for McDavid's underachieving but don't use 4 games out of Kucherov's impressive playoff history to downplay him in the same breath.

Well, I mean, I wouldn’t use Kucherov’s series as an argument to downplay him to begin with. Like I said, every player can have a bad series. It’s not an issue until it becomes a pattern.

As a neutral observer, I think Kucherov needed to be better, and I expected more, but that’s pretty much all I’d say. Tampa Bay, as a whole, crapped the bed. He just happened to be part of that. I don’t think the entire team handled adversity well, and Columbus just wasn’t giving them the opportunity to settle in. The BJ’s deserve a lot of credit for that, because they could have given Tampa room to breath and try to re-focus.

I don’t think McDavid has had a “crap the bed” series yet. I’d put money on it happening at some point, but he didn’t crap the bed vs. Anaheim. It just wasn’t a good series for him either. Anaheim tossed everything they could at him in typical playoff style, and he handled it about as I would expect, considering it was his first playoff run. That is, he showed that he still needs to learn a bit more about how to play in the playoffs, but he didn’t shy away and disappear. He still had 5 points, and was dangerous out there.

 

[c9777666]

If HFBoards existed in 1994, Fedorov would have been torched for his uninspiring play in a first round exit to the Sharks