Flashback: Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov tries to injure opponent scoring on empty net

Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov is facing heat from Detroit Red Wings fans for his blatant trip on forward Michael Rasmussen, who was on the verge of scoring into the open net to seal last nights 2-0 win at Little Caesars Arena.

Kucherov intentionally tripped Rasmussen, who crashed into the net and soon rose to his skates, but was in clear discomfort and later needed help getting down the tunnel to the locker room.

This isn't the first time that Kucherov has pulled off a dirty play like this.

Back in 2020 after the NHL resumed play after a several-month pause owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kucherov attempted to prevent New York Islanders forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau from scoring into the empty net by taking a dirty swing at his knees with his stick.

Pageau immediately retaliated, sparking a melee on the ice.

Kucherov may be one of the most talented and exciting players in the National Hockey League today, well worth the price of admission to watch what he can do.

However, his stooping to the level of an old-school 4th line goon needs to stop before someone gets seriously injured thanks to Kucherov's antics.

He's been suspended previously in his NHL career during the 2019 postseason after he boarded Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara from behind:

Kucherov also came under fire for his dirty knee-on-knee collision with Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk; he was given a 5-minute major penalty and ejected from the game, but the NHL chose not to suspend him.