Tampa Bay Lightning Surprise Nikita Kucherov With Ted Lindsay Award
The award is voted on by members of the NHLPA
The NHL Awards are coming up once the biggest award of them all, the Stanley Cup, gets handed out, but some of the hardware is on the move already, and that includes the Ted Lindsay Award.
This award is given to the league's most outstanding player during the regular season as voted on by NHLPA members, which makes it pretty special for the player who wins it, as it's a tip of the cap from his peers.
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This year, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov won the award — the second time in his career he has won this honor — and the Lightning came up with a special way to present it to him.
However, as Lightning captain Victor Hedman explained in a video posted by the NHL, the plan was to surprise Kucherov with the award when he got off the ice after a team skate. The only problem with that was, he didn't skate that day.
So, the team had to figure out a way to get Kucherov by himself so they could set things up, and the plan they came up with was some time in the cold tub, the sauna, and then a quick meeting with GM Julian BriseBois.
The GM that Kucherov could choose whether he wanted to fly out to LA to accept an award or just have the award flown to Tampa. I think Kucherov started to realize something was up when he asked, "What trophy?" and BriseBois had to tap dance a little. But after the meeting, Kucherov went out into a common area where he was handed the Ted Lindsay Award.
Even though they had to resort to something of a contingency plan, it looked like Kucherov was surprised.
Like I said, this award is a big honor, and Kucherov deserved it after a stellar season in which he led the league in points with 121 points (37G, 84A).