It's official, Kucherov out long-term for the Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning confirmed today that superstar forward Nikita Kucherov will be out of their lineup long-term after undergoing surgery for a lower body injury. The team estimates that he will miss approximately 8-10 weeks as he recovers.

Check it out:

Kucherov suffered the injury on October 16th during a game against the Washington Capitals. As he braced for a hit from Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway, Kucherov appeared to tweak something in his lower body. Watching the clip over and over it looks like he braced for a hit that never came and pivoted awkwardly. I'm no doctor, but I've had my fair share of groin injuries and to me this looks like a text book groin muscle tear.

Here's the play in question:

 Of course, we all remember that the 28 year old Kucherov missed the entirety of the 2020-21 NHL regular season after having hip surgery. He returned for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and would go on to score an incredible 32 points in 23 games in leading the Lightning to back to back Stanley Cups. In other words: this is nothing new for the Lightning. Take their best player out of the lineup and they'll still find a way to put together a championship season... go figure.

This time around though, the Lightning won't have the benefit of putting things in cruise control for the regular season. They're already off to a rocky start with a 3-3-1 record through seven games and that's with divisional contenders like the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs also stumbling out of the gate. The Florida Panthers have looked absolutely dominant to start the season and the Lightning will have to buckle down over the next while if they plan on contending with their state rival. In the end though, with or without Kucherov for the next 10 weeks, the Lightning are simply too talented to fall from a playoff position. They've got arguably the world's best goaltender in Andrei Vasilevsky and arguably the world's top defenseman in Victor Hedman. Their back to back Cup pedigree tells me that they'll be just fine weathering the storm until Kucherov returns.