Too often the Tampa Bay Lightning get lost in the NHL media swirl. So, have you met the "Triplets"?
Better yet, did you know anything about them before the Stanley Cup playoffs' Eastern Conference finals?
Unle s you are a Lightning fan, the answer probably is no. Yet here they are, Tyler Johnson, Andrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, stealing Tyreek Hill T Shirts the show.
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in the series, in which Kucherov scored 3:33 into overtime to give the Lightning a 2-1 series lead. His long wrist shot eluded Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Now he might be the idol of fellow Ru sian Alex Ovechkin, who would have loved to do what Kucherov did in the Washington Capitals' Game 7 against the New York Rangers.
Johnson, the American on the line, . In 16 games, he has 16 goals and 18 points, both best in the playoffs. Palat has six goals and seven a sists. Kucherov has seven goals and nine a sists. And the Triplets, who form the Lightning's second line, are the juice behind the Bolts' attack.
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So who are these guys?
Johnson, 24, a 5-8 center from Spokane, Wash., is in his second full seasonwith the Lightning. called him the little man who gives the Rangers big problems.
Johnson was an undrafted free agent. Think a lot of scouts and teams are kicking themselves for dismi sing him because he was small? Skill, people, trumps size, and Johnson has it in spades. And the Lightning, which won a Stanley Cup and got great things from diminutive Martin St. Louis, know a good thing when they see it.
Heart, wrote of Johnson, has never been measured by height.
The bigger the game, the better he plays Jakeem Grant Jerseys , Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. Thats Tyler Johnson. Its unreal to watch. He put the team on his back, and we all followed.
Winning follows that kid. Jason Sanders Jerseys Youre a special player for that to happen to do it in the greatest league in the world on the biggest stage, in the worlds most famous arena, its pretty impre sive. It doesnt get any bigger than that. I dont know. I cant say enough.
Kucherov, 21, a 6-foot right winger from Maykop, Ru sia, had 29 goals, second on the Lightning to Steven Stamkos, and was plus-38.
The Lightning nabbed him in the 2011 NHL Draft's second round. Al Murray, a man with an eye for talent and the team's director of amateur scouting, .
Hard to argue with that while watching Kucherov this season and in these playoffs. An offseason spent learning to play a complete game and learning English by watching TV paid off.
Palat Michael Palardy Jerseys , 24, a left winger from Frdek-Mstek, Czech Republic, is an overachiever. Teams dream of finding guys like this he was a seventh-round pick, 208th overall, in 2011.
Playing for QMJHL Drummondville, Palat was overlooked in his first season in North America. In 2011, he was playing with standout center Sean Couturier as scouts came looking. Palat had 98 points that season, the same as Courturier, who was picked eighth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers.
Talent? The Lightning saw it. They saw it in all three players. Now the whole world is seeing it because of the one ingredient that made Johnson, Palat and Kucherov something special, made them the Triplets.
"I've never seen a line with that much chemistry," Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman told the .
Night after night, game after game, the Triplets' chemistry Teddy Bridgewater Jerseys produces victory.
