Lightning, Avalanche Superstars in Tight Art Ross Race

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Last season, the top two scorers in the NHL were Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov with 144 points and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon with 140. This season, the top two scorers in the NHL are Kucherov and MacKinnon with 109 points apiece as of Sunday.

For most of the season, MacKinnon has had a sizeable lead over the rest of the league in terms of point. However, Kucherov has gained significant ground in a very short amount of time.

The 31-year-old Russian has a whopping 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past three games. The Lightning have dominated in those three home games, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1 on Tuesday, the Utah Hockey Club 8-0 on Thursday and the New York Islanders 5-3 on Saturday.

As a result, Kucherov, who set the record for assists by a winger (100) and points by a Russian-born player (144) last season, now has 109 points in 69 games, five fewer games than MacKinnon. That averages out to 1.58 points per game, which isn't quite as high as his 1.66 points per game last season, but still incredibly impressive.

This isn't to take away from what MacKinnon is doing this season. The reigning Hart Trophy winner is averaging 1.47 points per game, and is far and away his team's leading scorer, currently 25 points ahead of star defenseman Cale Makar. He also hasn't declined after the Avalanche traded away his longtime wingman Mikko Rantanen. If anything, he's been more impressive since then.

MacKinnon is still in the thick of the Hart Trophy race, whereas Kucherov is more of a dark horse to win it at this rate.

These two superstars took the Art Ross race to the wire last season, with Kucherov pulling away just at the end. Now, they're delivering an encore performance, and the finish should be just as exhilarating.