The Tampa Bay Lightning are hoisting their second Stanley Cup in as many seasons, and are celebrating as only teams in Tampa Bay know how: with an epic boat parade through the Hillsborough River in Florida.
The Lightning took to the water Monday to perform a celly of epic proportions after steamrolling the Canadiens in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, and they seemed to have a blast. Exhibit A: Nikita Kucherov.
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The right winger is fully embracing his role as the heel of the NHL postseason, as he was recently seen sporting a shirt that read “$18M Over the Cap,” a reference to the Lightning’s controversial (but totally legal) maneuvering of the NHL salary cap this season.
Kucherov kept the fun rolling (or boating) into Monday’s boat parade, which resulted in a seemingly (read as: very) blitzed interview with a news reporter.
“Unreal, all the people right here, unreal,” Kucherov said. “Love them all. Let’s party hard. Our time, baby, back-to-back, that’s how we do it. …
“It’s an unreal team, everybody was playing hard. I wish we could keep everybody, but it’s a business. As of right now, let’s party hard, let’s enjoy it, we deserve it.”
(Editor’s note: Kucherov’s comments have been edited to remove drunken slurring.)
Kucherov ends the interview by dousing the reporter with a bottle of Budweiser.
Lightning fans got into the fun, too. Some fans fashioned a Stanley Cup of their own made out of beer cans and a bowl …
… while the real Stanley Cup went on a personal ride on a Jet Ski, just as Lord Stanley intended.
Nice to see the Lightning and their fans party down after another romp through the playoffs. Water conducts electricity, after all.
