THIS is how you do a postgame press conference – especially after you just won the Stanley Cup.
The Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the series against the Montreal Canadiens to win their second straight Cup.
And Nikita Kucherov topped it off with an absolutely electric presser.
The right winger, who led all players with 32 points in the playoffs, showed up to the podium shirtless and ripping a Bud Light and held nothing back when the media started firing questions at him.
He started off hot when asked to describe his emotions after winning two straight Stanley Cups:
“I don’t know what to say. Fucking back-to-back.”
Kucherov then went on to heap praise on his goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and express his frustration at Vasilevskiy being passed over for the Vezina Trophy that’s awarded to the best goaltender in the league:
“Vasi was outstanding. MVP. I was telling him every day ‘Vasi, you’re MVP, you’re the best player.’ And then they gave it to whatever the guy in Vegas, the Vezina. And then last year, they gave Vezina to somebody else. Number one bullshit, number one bullshit. Vasi took both Cups. He took MVP and I keep telling him he’s the MVP, he’s the guy that fuckin’ – he’s the best.”
Then Kucherov had some words for Montreal’s fans:
“I didn’t want to go back to Montreal, but they acted – the fans in Montreal, they acted like they won the Stanley Cup last game. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Their final was last series.”
But he didn’t just throw heat at Montreal fans. When one reporter was breaking up during his question, Kucherov told him to “buy a new mic.” And he also commented on the number of questions that the media was throwing at him:
“That’s a lot of questions too today. Come on. I’m used to one, two questions, but today it’s like what, five? Fuckin’ making records.”
I love it. Postgame press conferences are usually full of boring, canned answers about how great the team is and how proud they are of their teammates.
Give me Nikita Kucherov ripping beers and throwing heat at anybody and everybody after every game.
And with two Stanley Cups in a row, he’s earned it.
