TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov remembers the first NHL game he attended as if it were yesterday.



He was 18 years old and in New York with his parents, Svetlana and Igor. Igor is a colonel in the Russian army. They got nosebleed seats — “the last row,” he says — at Madison Square Garden for the Rangers-Capitals 2013 first-round playoff series.



“I was just happy to be there,” he said.



Kucherov marveled at how the crowd “chirped” at the referees. He couldn’t believe how often Rangers forward Ryan Callahan surrendered his body to block shots. “A beast,” Kucherov recalled. Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman — all now Kucherov’s Lightning teammates — were there, too.



But Kucherov kept his eyes glued on fellow Russian and Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin, who was one of Kucherov’s idols. It’s who they came to see. Kucherov wasn’t able to...