We've gotta create a new standard - call it the Kucherov Standard - for being able to properly compare expectations with Kucherov to the expectations of every other hockey player. It's hilarious how this seems to work with him.
Kucherov has a hip surgery that keeps players away from NHL game action for 5-7 months or so - a timeline that had been established by previous players who had received the same operation and then took that long to return to the ice...guys like David Pastrnak and Tyler Seguin, so not nobodies - Kucherov managed to return in 4.5 months because the playoffs were beginning (and very clearly was not skating anywhere near his usual level) and people bitched for two solid months before that and ever since then as well that he could've played sooner and that it was pure cap bullshit on the Lightning's part and that alone.
Now, it's either "yeah, he's leading the league in empty net points, so stick an asterisk on that" (God we love our *'s around these parts) - apparently Kucherov is the only NHL player who has tried to get empty net goals or assists, it's never been a tactic of NHL coaches to get guys with 2 goals on the ice to give them a chance at the hat trick - or when it's pointed out that Kucherov has the highest PPG against "tough competition", then the almost-impossible-to-prove argument pops up about "but what about when he played them, how were they faring then?", a kind of parsing of details into a player's statistics that has literally never been done in the history of statistical arguments.
It's hysterical what people try to hold Kucherov to. And then they get salty back in return when Kucherov taunts back with his "#1 bullshit" retorts...you motherf-ckers deserve every bit of those taunts, you're lucky Kucherov doesn't do more of that.
(EDIT: Btw, not for nothing, but the three worst teams in the NHL are all in the West...Chicago, San Jose, and Anaheim. Kucherov got to play those teams a combined six times. MacKinnon and McDavid have gotten to play them, what, 9-12 times or whatever? Makes a difference too. Somehow that never gets mentioned though.)