BriseBois: "Stars aligned" for Kucherov to return for postseason

A fair amount of criticism has been lobbed at the Tampa Bay Lightning as they enter the Stanley Cup Semifinal round Sunday against the New York Islanders for the way they were able to use Nikita Kucherov's offseason surgery and subsequent placement on long-term injury reserve to get under the salary cap before the start of the 2020-21 regular season and Kucherov's return for the opening game of the playoffs when there is no salary cap.
Most recently, in exit interviews following his team's 4-1 defeat to the Lightning in the Second Round, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton, when answering a question about what the Hurricanes need to get to the next level to beat a team like the Lightning in the playoffs, said the Canes lost to a team "$18 million over the cap or whatever they are" before going on to say he wasn't "knocking the rules" and didn't "have a problem with it."
But clearly a lot of people do have a problem with how Tampa Bay handled the injury to Kucherov and were able to maintain its core in an offseason where they were under a considerable cap crunch.

On Saturday, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois addressed those concerns among other issues during a pre-Semifinal round media availability. BriseBois said everything the Lightning did came within the rules established by the National Hockey League and was approved by the League.
"When you place a player on long-term injury and get the salary cap exemption, you have to justify that to the NHL, and this year in particular the NHL investigated I believe all of the LTIR requests," BriseBois said. "I know they investigated the Nikita Kucherov one, and we had to be able to justify the surgery, the rehab time, the return to play, clearance, to make sure everything was done according to the rules and according to the circumstances. Those are the cards we were dealt. That's how we handled it. We had a player that was injured, needed surgery with about a five-month expected rehabilitation time. It just so happened this season, because of the extraordinary circumstances, the regular season was only lasting four months, so he was able to have surgery, miss the entire season, we got some cap relief during the season and he was able to come back a little sooner than expected."
Kucherov's surgery to repair a torn hip labrum was similar to surgeries undergone by Brayden Point, Yanni Gourde, Ryan Callahan and Ben Thomas while with the Lightning in recent years. Kucherov was initially expected to miss five months following his surgery December 29, placing him ready for a return at the end of May, which would have been at the start of the Second Round series versus the Hurricanes.
But due to his diligence in rehabbing and unparalleled determination, Kucherov returned quicker than expected, quicker, in fact, than any of the aforementioned other four players required to return.
BriseBois admitted the "stars aligned" to allow Kucherov to join the Lightning for their postseason run.
"Nikita's been able to come back and perform at a high level," BriseBois said. "When all of the decisions were made that Nikita needed surgery and then we had to decide whether to place him on long-term exemption or not for the season, I didn't know how things would unfold. Luckily for me and our organization, I don't think they could have unfolded any better. But at the time when I was looking at all the possible scenarios and all the possible outcomes, none of them were as good as this one and there were a lot of ones that weren't very good."
Kucherov has five goals and 18 points through 11 games and leads the NHL playoffs for scoring, assists and power-play scoring. He's attempting to become the first player since Mario Lemieux in 1991 and 1992 to lead the playoffs for scoring in consecutive seasons. He put up a franchise-record 34 points in Tampa Bay's run to the Stanley Cup in 2020.
"Not only did (Kucherov) come back faster, it looks like he's playing at the high level that he's accustomed to over the year, which is obviously great news for us and part of the reason why we've been able to beat two really good teams in the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes and earn the opportunity to go up against the New York Islanders now here," BriseBois said.
HED OF THE CLASS: Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman was named a finalist for the Norris Trophy for the fifth-consecutive season earlier these playoffs, joining the Rangers' Adam Fox and Colorado's Cale Makar as the top three blueliners in the NHL, as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Hedman is the first player to be a Norris finalist five seasons in a row since his fellow countryman Nicklas Lidstrom did so six-straight seasons from 1998 to 2003. Only Lidstrom, Bobby Orr (9 seasons from 1967-75), Ray Bourque (7 seasons from 1990-96) and Pierre Pilote (6 seasons from 1962-67) have been a finalist more consecutive seasons than Hedman, who won the award in 2018, becoming the first Norris winner in Lightning franchise history.
Saturday, BriseBois was asked about Hedman's remarkable achievement and suggested the 30-year-old Swede continues to get better each season.
"I think year to year, if we go back to his first Norris Trophy nomination, I think he was better the following season and I think he won the Norris that season," BriseBois said. "I think he was even better than the Norris Trophy season the two following seasons and again this year. Everyone got to see him play and maybe focus more on his play last year during the playoffs, and I think it gave the world an opportunity to see how good a defenseman he is, how good a player he is, how valuable a player he is. To be mentioned with Ray Bourque and Nicklas Lidstrom, I think it just goes to show that Victor is just a generational talent and, in my opinion, the best defenseman of his generation. And I think he's still getting better, which is awesome news for our organization."
Hedman, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs in 2020, ranks second among NHL defensemen for scoring this postseason behind Boston's Charlie McAvoy, although the Bruins have been eliminated from the playoffs. His 11 points these playoffs have all come on assists, and he's only two assists from matching his career best for a playoff season of 13 assists set in 25 games last postseason. Nine of his 11 assists have come on a lethal Lightning power play that is connecting at a League-best 41.7 percent and has scored at least one power-play goal in eight of 11 games so far this postseason.
Hedman needs just one more power-play point to match his career best for power-play scoring in the postseason, that coming last playoffs when he put up three power-play goals and 10 power-play points.
But maybe even more valuable than his postseason production, Hedman has emerged as a valuable leader for the Lightning, helping to replace past veterans like Callahan, Anton Stralman, Brian Boyle and Dan Girardi who were major voices in the Bolts locker room but have since retired or moved on to other teams.
"What people don't see is how much Victor's grown as a leader within our team," BriseBois said. "He's really stepped up in the last few years in terms of playing a bigger leadership role, both on and off the ice, and that's been incredibly valuable to our organization and I think a big reason as to why we've had success."
SERG-ING AHEAD: In December last season, Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev approached general manager Julien BriseBois and head coach Jon Cooper about what he needed to do to earn more ice time and an expanded role in the team's future.
The two told Sergachev they needed him to play more physical.
Sergachev took the message to heart.
His increased physicality was perhaps no more noticeable than when he fought the Sabres' Jake McCabe later that month on New Year's Eve in Buffalo, Sergachev taking McCabe down to the ice, opening a cut under McCabe's eye and famously gesturing to the crowd emphatically as he made his way to the penalty box.
Sergachev took his game to new heights over the second half of the 2019-20 season, his defense partner Kevin Shattenkirk saying once he learned how to use his body to his advantage and play more physically, his game took off.
He was a key component of the Stanley Cup run, finishing third on the Bolts for average time on ice at 22-and-a-half minutes and contributing 10 points in 25 games, second among Lightning defensemen.
Now, he's a player who figures in every situation for the Lightning.
Need a penalty killed?
Sergachev is one of the first over the boards.
Who's backing up Victor Hedman on the power play?
Sergachev quarterbacks the second unit and even got some run on the first unit during the playoffs last season and again in the 2020-21 regular season with Nikita Kucherov out as part of a two-defenseman look on the top unit with Hedman.
Preserving a lead?
Sergachev is in at the end of games, often blocking shots to keep pucks away from Andrei Vasilevskiy's net. In the series-clinching Game 5 win over Carolina, he blocked a team-high five shots, part of a masterful performance by him and the rest of the Bolts defensemen to preserve a shutout and advance to the organization's fifth semifinal in the last seven seasons and seventh overall.
Cooper recalled that meeting a year-and-a-half ago with Sergachev and the development the Russian defenseman has undergone since then.
"You kind of want guys if they're going to talk the talk to walk the walk," Cooper said. "Sergy was a young player in our organization, and he's been coming up through the ranks and it was just small bits of ice time and putting him in situations. You can't fault the kid for wanting to play more and to be put in bigger situations. And maybe we should put him sooner. We had a plan for him and what we thought the right development was for him, but you need a kid to be able to want it and want more and I love that kind of fire in a kid but then you also have to back it up. And Sergy did."
What's hard to fathom is Sergachev is just 22 years old (he'll turn 23 on June 25). He signed a three-year bridge contract before this season on November 25. And with the ability to play both the left and the right side, he'll be a cornerstone on the blue line for years to come.
"You need to have a big, strong defenseman back there that can play, and Sergy is certainly one of those guys, but he needed to learn how to play in his own end," Cooper said. "When he figured that out, he looked at us and said, 'Okay, I've got that figured out. What more can I do?' Now he can do it all. He's earned a right to be a north of 20-minutes guy every single night."