Tampa Bay Lightning Provide Update Regarding Nikita Kucherov

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper told reporters that forward Nikita Kucherov is inching closer to returning. He hopes that the 28-year-old will be back in the lineup by mid-January.

Kucherov has been out of the lineup since October 16th. The star winger was off to another excellent start this campaign before it. In three games, he scored a goal and had three helpers. This is quite solid production from a player who has missed far more games than not over these last two seasons.

It's been a very challenging year for the Lightning when it comes to injuries. Fellow star Brayden Point missed over a month of action himself and just returned at the end of December. Even with their injury trouble, however, the Lightning have remained quite dominant. At this time, they have a 21-8-5 record and look like a team who could on another Stanley Cup run.

Now, with a Kucherov return looming, they should become even better from here. That certainly is bad news for the rest of the league.