On Saturday night at the First Niagara Center, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov pulled off one of the most creative shootout moves you may ever see. Kucherov went skating towards Buffalo Sabres goalie Robin Lehner just like any other shootout, but slid the puck towards the net, while extending his stick out to act as though he was cradling the puck. That's where the tricky part comes. Instead of actually corralling the puck to go backhand, Kucherov just let the puck continue to slide. As the goalie moved towards where the backhand would be, the puck simply slid through his legs. It was truly a thing of brilliance.
Well, our good friend Pavel Barber found the exact same play made by Sergei Shirokov, and we're thinking that's where Kucherov got his inspiration from.
What do you think; was Shirokov the inspiration? We hear Kucherov had used the move in practice a couple times...
(H/T @HeyBarber)
