Stamkos, Bolts look to make up for playoff miss
Steven Stamkos and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates are deflecting the question about whether the club has a goal of winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the National Hockey League’s top regular-season team.
They’re more concerned about making up for an injuryplagued 2016-17, when they failed to make the playoffs for the first time in four seasons.
“We had a tough string of injuries that affected us,” said Stamkos, whose Lightning faced the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, beating them 2-0. “You could tell back in training camp this season, everyone had a chip on their shoulders about not letting that happen again.”
Stamkos, in his 10th NHL season, has learned there is nothing to be gained from talking about team goals 38 games into an 82-game season. Injuries can derail any success, as the Lightning forward knows all too well. Stamkos was a part of that injury rash a year ago, suffering a torn meniscus in his knee that ended his season. It was the third time in four years that his season was cut short, with a clotting issue in his shoulder ending his 2015-16 season and a broken tibia ending ’13-14.
Tampa Bay’s playoff failure a year ago came after six of the club’s 12 forwards suffered longterm injuries, forcing coach John Cooper to work with American Hockey League call-ups. Many nights, he had to go with 11 forwards and seven defencemen.
Now, after going 11-2-0 in December, tying the club mark for wins in a single month, the Lightning are looking like a championship-calibre club. Tampa entered Tuesday leading the NHL with 28 wins, points (58), points percentage (.763), goal differential (plus-51), and road goal differential (plus-21).
Tampa also led the NHL in goals with 142, and goals per game (3.74), while ranking second in goals against per game (2.42), making them the only NHL team in the top six in both those categories.
But the Lightning were in a similar position in 2013-14, before Stamkos broke his leg. They lost in the first round of the playoffs that spring, then advanced to the Stanley Cup final and the East Conference final the next two seasons.
When injuries helped plunge the team out of the playoffs last season, it narrowed the team’s focus this season to being consistent on a daily basis.
“As a player, you have to focus on trying to get better,” Stamkos said. “You have to want to be the best. I think Coop wants to be the best, and he’s been in this league long enough now. So, to see him go through (having his team miss the playoffs) ... it was like the rest of us, a kick in the butt. And for all of us, we don’t want to see that happen again.”
While embracing the challenge of rebounding this season, the Lightning have benefitted from the league-leading goaltending of Andrei Vasilevskiy and the league-leading scoring of Nikita Kucherov.
Kucherov returned to Tampa Bay early in the off-season, renting the ice sheet at Amalie Arena and working out five days a week on his own to prepare for this season. Stamkos, facing a massive mental challenge in returning from his third major injury in four years, has also set an example. He scored his leagueleading 12th power-play goal in a 5-0 win over Columbus on Sunday, and had recorded a powerplay point in 22 of his team’s first 38 games.
“A lot of hard work,” said Stamkos, who was fourth in NHL scoring entering Tuesday and had at least one point in 27 of 38 games.
“There’s been a lot of tough days. I didn’t know what to expect this year, and the tough injury luck I’ve had ... you have to fall back on preparation. The worst part is sitting back and watching your teammates, and not being able to help. Now, we haven’t accomplished anything yet. It’s all about consistency right now.”