Saturday, April 23, 2022

New King In Tampa

When you get selected 1st overall in a draft, in any sport, there's a lot of pressure on you. That's what happened to Steven Stamkos, who was taken first overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2008 entry draft. He was expected to help bring the Lightning back to a level of prominance. He has done that and then some. And on Thursday night, he added another notch to his belt. He became the Lightning all time leading scorer, passing the previous mark set by Martin St Louis.

It happened about eight minutes into the second period, on a powerplay, Stammer ripped a slap shot from his office. The goal was his 954th career point, passing Martin St Louis for Lightning all time leading scorer. It was also worth noting that the assists on that goal went to Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman. For Kucherov, the assist was his 600th career point.

But back to Stamkos. He now sits at 956 points and counting, further adding to his lead in the Bolts record book. He's won two cups, and is seeking his third straight this year. He's hit 50 goals in a season, he's even hit 60 goals in a season. He's scored 473 goals and added 483 assists for those 956 points in 917 games, as of this writing. He's missed significant time in his career due to injury, and if he hadn't he would have already passed the 1,000 game played mark and would have scored over 1,000 points already.

Now that his name is at the top of the Bolts all time scoring record book, it speaks volumes for him and the franchise. He's taken and embraced this city of Tampa as his own and his hometown. He's become a true Floridian. And the fact that he's taking over the top of the record books as the lightning's leading scorer is a lot. Becoming the king of the hill as a home grown guy, spending his entire career here in Tampa, is amazing. And the numbers on the ice speak for themselves. What he's done in Tampa off the ice as well should also be talked about. He's done so much for the the Tampa area for helping his community and has been a tremendous representative for not only the Lighting but the city of Tampa Bay as well

Congratulations to Steve Stamkos for breaking the Lightning all time scoring record

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