VANCOUVER — Over the years, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has learned to calmly anticipate milestone moments. When he was younger, he used to lose sleep over them. But as he got older, he realized stress doesn’t help the cause and each mark will be reached in due time.
That didn’t make the anticipation of reaching 500 career goals easier.
Stamkos came within three goals of the milestone more than a month ago — Dec. 13 at home against Seattle — but since had struggled to score despite his best efforts and those of everyone around him.
“It’s just navigating those times, that I’ve been through a lot of them now and just have that experience to know,” Stamkos said recently. “Just keep playing the right way, don’t push it. When you start to cheat and hope for plays — and it feels cliche — that’s when things usually go the opposite way. So for me, that’s why I’ve kind of been more comfortable in those situations.”
It might not have been the way anyone scripted, with the Lightning playing in Vancouver while much of Tampa Bay was asleep three times zones away. But after such a long wait, Stamkos’ moment finally arrived. He scored No. 500 against the Canucks 4:40 into the first period in what turned out to be a 5-2 Lightning win Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
Stamkos’ goal came on his second shift of the night from in front of an open net. After Anthony Cirelli brought the puck into the offensive zone but slipped, Alex Killorn recovered it. From the left circle, Killorn found Stamkos all alone camped at the far post for a redirection past Canucks goaltender Spencer Martin.
Stamkos became the 47th player in NHL history to score 500 goals and the third active player, joining the elite company of the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin and the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby. He also is the 23rd player to score 500 goals all with one franchise.
After Stamkos scored, he was first bear hugged by Zach Bogosian, then Killorn, and disappeared momentarily as his entire team emptied the bench to celebrate on the ice, something the Lightning had to receive league approval to do, just as they did following Stamkos’ 1,000th career point in Philadelphia on Dec. 1.
Before he joined the celebration, Corey Perry made a beeline to the net and scooped up the puck as the crowd gave Stamkos a standing ovation. After Stamkos emerged from the pack, he raised his stick to acknowledge the fans at center ice.
The goal seemed to allow the Lightning to exhale, and Tampa Bay poured it on in a four-goal first period. Among the flurry, Stamkos hardly had to wait for goal No. 501, which came with 5:25 left in the first period and gave the Lightning a 4-0 lead.
The second tally gave Stamkos his 13th career 20-goal season, which passed Vinny Lecavalier for the most in team history.
Stamkos’ teammates had worked diligently to get him the puck over the past month, and he had had many chances to score in the previous few games. And in recent days, the pursuit seemed to grind on Stamkos and the team.
In the final minute of the Lightning’s win Monday afternoon in Seattle, Victor Hedman looked for any way to feed Stamkos for an empty-net goal, but he couldn’t create a passing lane and had to shoot the puck himself.
“That was the only thing in my head,” Hedman said Wednesday before the Canucks game. “After I put it in, the first thing I did was to watch the replay to see if I could have passed it. But it would have taken something special to get that through. You’re obviously looking for (Stamkos). … I was going to try to put (the puck) off the bar to make sure he had the rebound.”
After failing to reach 500 in two home games last week, Stamkos had 11 shot attempts (four on goal) Saturday in St. Louis — including one off the post with an open net in front of him — and two empty-net looks late. Four of his five shots on goal in Seattle came in the first period.
The Lightning can claim that Stamkos’ pursuit wasn’t a distraction, but there’s no doubt the longer the wait, the more they wanted it.
“It was like when he was getting 1,000 points,” coach Jon Cooper said. “When milestones happen, they don’t come around a whole lot. But because his core (of teammates) has been together for so long, everybody wants to see this happen for him.”
With his 1,000 career points (he also got his 500th assist this season) to go along with two Stanley Cup championships, Stamkos, who turns 33 next month, seemingly also reaches the prerequisites for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.
From the teenager who was immediately Tampa Bay’s franchise fixture when drafted No. 1 overall in 2008 to the unquestioned leader of the game’s most dominant team the past three seasons, Stamkos now is in rare company.
“From the time I was with him, if you would have told me that he would score 500 goals in this league, I would have put a lot of money on it,” said Canadiens coach Marty St. Louis, who was Stamkos’ mentor when they were Lightning teammates. “(Stamkos has) always scored goals at every level he’s played. And he went through a few years where there were some serious injuries and he didn’t know about his longevity in this league, but I think he’s past that now.
“He’s back at 100% and doing the things that he’s always done. And I actually think he’s a better player today than when he was scoring 60 (goals in 2011-12).”
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