there's no stopping Stamkos
there's no stopping Stamkos
there's no stopping Stamkos
there's no stopping Stamkos
It was Monday night. The Lightning and Boston Bruins were between periods. Phil Esposito, who scored 717 regular-season NHL goals, fifth all time, and Scotty Bowman, who coached a record nine Stanley Cup winners, stood in the Forum press box. The two Hall of Famers were asked about The Kid. He'd scored his 20th goal in just his 21st game. A sampling:
"He reminds me of Guy Lafleur," Bowman said. "He can fly and he can score, All team of NHL, ujersy suply NHL Jerseys."
"He has one of the best shots I've ever seen. And I've seen them all," Esposito said.
"Those great scorers, they don't miss the net," Bowman said.
"He's like Mike Bossy a little, too," Esposito said.
"He's 20 ," Bowman said. "How are you going to stop this kid?"
The kid in question, the talk of the NHL, sat in the Lightning dressing room after the game, another win. Lightning center Steven Stamkos was asked about his moustache. It isn't going well. He's doing it for a charity event for men's health, but the 'stache is scraggly and so light, as light as his blond hair, that Stamkos touched it up with Just For Men, Recommend directory: Boston BruinsJerseys.
Repeating: blond hair, black moustache.
"At least now you can see it," Stamkos said with a smile.
The rest of him has all the hockey world watching. Stamkos all but blushed when told about Esposito and Bowman's chatter.
"All of that is a little surreal for me," he said.
He scored 51 goals last season, just his second in the NHL. This season is another runaway train. Stamkos leads the NHL with those 20 goals and shares the points lead with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. Stamkos has reached super freak status. He's in the best-in-show conversation, in there with Crosby and Washington scoring beast Alex Ovechkin.
"I just came in really confident this season," Stamkos said. "Right now, they're going in."
He'll adorn the cover of the next issue of The Hockey News and Sports Illustrated is working up a story. And sometime this season there will be a big contract to keep Stamkos with the Lightning, a long-term deal, you know, to take Stamkos all the way up until he is: 25.
Definitely surreal.
Stamkos' linemate and fellow perpetual motion machine Marty St. Louis sometimes wishes things could slow down a little for Stamkos.
"I know he has a good head on his shoulders," St. Louis said, Recommend directory: Calgary Flames Jerseys. "He's not the kind of kid who's going to be any different no matter what comes his way. But people keep asking about numbers. I just don't want him to think about numbers. You know? Just play. Just play."
"It's just something you've got to try to have fun with," Stamkos said.
His one-timers, tape to twine in no seconds flat, are a league headliner. His scoring touch leaves even all-time greats agog.
Start with the release.
"It has to be one of the quickest ever," Esposito said. "And he hits what he shoots at."
"In my rookie year, Gary Roberts was on me all the time, telling me I had to give him 10 bucks every time I missed the net," Stamkos said. "He was probably into me for a couple of hundred (dollars). I was missing all the time at the beginning. You can't score if it's not on net.
"How hard is my shot? I shot one pretty hard in the summer, at a Bauer event, I think I hit 104 (mph) on a slapper. But most of my goals are more accurate than they're hard."
This season, one out of every four times Stamkos shoots, the light goes on. Crosby's shooting percentage is 15 percent. Ovechkin is at 11.6 percent.
"Everybody keeps talking about his shot," Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. "But he never gets to that shot without his speed."
"It's hard to stop someone who's always moving," St. Louis said.
Teams are keying on Stamkos. He has had to create new spaces and seams. He is driving the net more. There have been more goals from in front, like Monday, when he knocked home a sweet backhand feed from St. Louis.
"That's the problem for teams," Boucher said. "They know he's on the ice and they try to figure out where he's going to stand. But the reality is, it comes from anywhere. It could be a wrap around, a slap, a wrister, from the off side or the one-timer."
Steven Stamkos is here, there, everywhere.
"I just wanted to be in the NHL," Stamkos said. "All my friends are in second or third year of university. That kind of puts it in perspective for me. I remember getting drafted like it was yesterday. Things are flying by. It's amazing."
He's 20 . How are you going to stop this kid?
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