Kucherov Dominates As Lightning Roll Past Sabres, Predators Stay Hot: The Hockey News Morning Skate

Welcome to The Hockey News Morning Skate, where we give a quick recap of all the action from the NHL every weekday morning so you stay up to date.

Wednesday's slate featured 12 teams across six games with some big developments in the standings to recap.

Let's run through the biggest storylines that emerged from last night, and make sure to check out the video version of this story above.

Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick and finished with four points and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Buffalo Sabres 8-3. The reigning Hart Trophy winner has four goals and 11 points in the six games he's played since announcing he will not re-sign with the Lightning and would like a change of scenery.

On the other side of this lineup, the Sabres have now lost three of their last four games and are sixth in the Atlantic Division with an 8-7-3 record. Buffalo fans will know there's still plenty of room for a turnaround, as the Sabres were last in the conference this time last season before going on one of the all-time great regular season runs.

Just as everyone predicted, the Nashville Predators are second in the Central Division. After taking down the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday for their sixth win in a row, the Predators improved to 10-4-5 and took a one-point lead over the Colorado Avalanche and now sit five points back of the Minnesota Wild for the top spot.

Despite this loss, Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier continued his torrid goal-scoring pace. He broke a 105-year-old record with his 16th of the season on Wednesday, becoming the first NHL player since 1921-22 to score 12 goals in his team's first six games of a calendar month.

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