Namestnikov quietly having superb season with Lightning

TAMPA -- He is easily overshadowed, this soft-spoken 25-year-old, the third wheel on perhaps the best line in the NHL this season. The names Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov roll off the tongue, their rhythms easy, their achievements impressive. But Vladislav Namestnikov? That one is harder.
Namestnikov, though, has been the perfect complement to the perfect line this season, a crucial piece powering the Tampa Bay Lightning, the best team in the League. He has helped make the line what it is, even if he isn't piling up quite as many points as his linemates.

Still, Namestnikov, who can become a restricted free agent on July 1, 2018, is putting up points at a rate he's never come close to since entering the NHL late in the 2013-14 season.
Namestnikov has 15 goals, including the one that tied the game at 11:05 of the third period against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday in what become a 4-3 shootout victory for the Lightning. That's one more than his previous NHL career high of 14, set in 2015-16. Namestnikov is all but certain to set an NHL career best in points; he has 30 with one game remaining before the Christmas break after never having more than 35 in a full season.
"Just trying to play my game and just having fun with it," Namestnikov said when asked about his breakout season. "I'm playing with some amazing players and it just has been fun. They make it easy."
But why is it so easy? Why does Namestnikov fit so well alongside Stamkos and Kucherov?

"He's such a smart player," defenseman Victor Hedman said.
"He's just such a smart player," Stamkos said.
"Well, he's got a high hockey IQ," coach Jon Cooper said.
That hockey IQ and those smarts have gotten him here, to a place where he can stand on his own next to two of the best players in the NHL.
"He's got all the tools, but his hockey IQ is very high," Stamkos continued. "We just read off each other. I thought the last couple games we've gotten our groove back a little bit as a line and confidence and created a lot of chances, haven't played much in our end.
"Vladdy, he's a guy that's going to fly under the radar, but he'd rather have it that way. He shouldn't because he's a great player."
Against the Senators, Namestnikov showed why he has fit so well. On his game-tying goal, as Nikita Kucherov approached the right side of the net, he sent the puck back to Victor Hedman, resulting in a near-miss by Hedman that required a stellar save by Craig Anderson. However, Namestnikov patiently found some empty space in front of the net and was perfectly positioned to flip the rebound past Anderson and make it 3-3.
"He goes to those areas, too. He's in front of the net," Hedman said. "He's battling in corners. He's tough to play against. Great playing sense, and in a funny way he's finding a way to produce and scoring big goals for us. You saw last year before [Stamkos] went down [with a season-ending knee injury on Nov. 15], they had great chemistry for the first 18, 20 games, so we knew that coming into camp that that was a big possibility those guys would start again. They've been playing great. They've been carrying us for the most part [this] season."

As Hedman alluded to, the trio had seen time together last season, but that unraveled when Stamkos went down with his right knee injury. But coach Jon Cooper put Namestnikov back with Stamkos and Kucherov to start this season in hopes that they would build on the promise they had shown.
They have.
"Vladdy is one of those guys, Vladdy can play with anybody," Cooper said. "I think he's a great complement because you've got two guys that are big-time shooters; Vladdy doesn't have the shot that they have, but he's really good in tight, it's where he can make those plays.
"That's where he gets a lot of his goals is right in front of the net. But, as I said, he sees the ice so he can put pucks in spots that can make good things happen for [Kucherov] and [Stamkos]. That's what he's good at."
Good things have been happening all season for Kucherov and for Stamkos and for the Lightning. For Namestnikov, too, even if his name and his presence are not nearly those of his linemates.
Not that that is all bad.
"It might be better that way, in some senses," Stamkos said, smiling. "But he deals with it great. He's got such a great personality. He's so easygoing that he's just like, whatever. But we talk a lot, we communicate a lot as a line. It's no fluke that he's having the year that he's having because he's a great player. We'll try to keep him going."