TAMPA, Fla. — When Jon Cooper gave the forward line of Ross Colton, Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh the off-the-cuff nickname of “the kid line,” it stuck.
But they aren’t really kids. Colton is 25; Katchouk and Raddysh are both 23. They weren’t fast tracked. Instead, they all dutifully served their time in the AHL, developing tight friendships with each other along the way before earning promotions to the Lightning.
“I can’t take credit for this line,” Cooper said, “but I heard on the bench from (Brayden Point), he said, ‘The oldest kid line in the league.’”
Whatever they’re called, their play is drawing praise inside the Lightning locker room.
They were separated for several weeks when the Lightning were forced to shuffle the lineup. Colton found himself moved around the most. But the trio reunited five games ago, and they picked up where they left off: getting aggressive on the forecheck, establishing zone time and creating scoring chances.
“They’ve actually played extremely well when they’ve been together,” Cooper said. “Injuries and COVID have just changed our lineup quite a bit. But with (Nikita Kucherov) coming back now and us staying relatively healthy for the forwards, it’s good for us to keep those guys together. They’re all buddies and they play really hard for each other.”
Colton recorded the first two-goal game of his career in the Lightning’s 7-1 win over the Sharks in San Jose on Saturday night — and was one nice Adin Hill save away from a hat trick — giving him four goals in the past four games. After scoring just two goals in his first 30 games this season, Colton has six in his past 10.
“I feel pretty confident with my game,” Colton said. “Obviously goals and points are awesome for me, but I don’t like to look too much into that. At the start of the season, I thought I was playing really well, but the bounces weren’t going my way, and I kind of just didn’t really care. It was just like if the team’s winning and I’m doing what I need to do to help us get two points at the end of night, that’s awesome for me.
“But I just feel like right now, our line’s playing really well,” he added. “We’re just bringing energy. I can’t say enough good things about (Katchouk and Raddysh), both of them. They’ve been awesome for me. We’re good buddies off the ice and the chemistry translates out there.”
Coming off a frustrating 5-1 loss in Anaheim on Friday, Colton started the scoring for the Lightning on Saturday. Closing in on the goal from the left side, he centered a passed aimed at Raddysh approaching the far post, but instead the pass hit off an opponent and redirected into the net.
Colton scored his second goal cleaning up a loose puck that hit off Raddysh late in the third period, then made a nice toe drag move toward the net with 2:18 left in the game that was turned away by Hill.
Colton’s line was rewarded Saturday, but it was the one line that played well in Friday’s loss, generating a team-high six scoring chances in 5-on-5 play. Colton scored the Lightning’s only goal on the power play. Cooper picked that line to start Saturday, and Colton’s first goal came on their second shift.
“I thought they were our best line (in Friday’s) game,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “Despite the lack of success we had as a team, I thought they were the bright spot. ... Kudos to that line for for playing well again (Saturday) to get us get us rolling.”
