Stamkos reaches milestones to earn player of the week honors; Kucherov named second star

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
October 23, 2017

TAMPA – Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov sit first and second in league scoring.

On Monday, the linemates were named First and Second Star of the Week, respectively, with Stamkos reaching a couple of milestones in the process.

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Stamkos was named first star of the week by the league after record four multi-point games during a four-game week to surge to the top of the league scoring race with 18 points entering Monday. He capped off the week with his third goal of the season, which was his 113th career power play goal to set the franchise record, passing Vinny Lecavalier. His assist on Mikhail Sergachev’s goal in the third period of Saturday’s 7-1 victory against Pittsburgh also marked his 600th career point to become just the third player in franchise history to reach the 600-point mark.

”It’s cool because probably not a lot of people can say they reached that many points with one team,’’ Stamkos said. “I wouldn’t say it’s something that you lose sleep over, but it’s nice to do especially in a game like that, in a win like that, it was fun.’’

Setting the franchise mark for power play goals is also a notch on his resume.

”That’s special, too,’’ he said. “Vinny was a huge piece of this franchise and getting the chance to play with him I got to see him score a lot of power play goals first hand. We’ll see but I’m sure Kuch will have that record some day but for now it’s nice to have that.’’

It all just capped off an impressive week for the Lightning, led by the league’s top two scorers.

”Things are going well right now and you can’t take it for granted,’’ Stamkos said. “There are really good stretches and really tough stretches throughout the season and throughout your career. Everything that Kuch is shooting right now seems to be finding the back of the net, it’s just one of those things. So you just ride those streaks as long as possible because it’s definitely fun to be on when you go through something like that. You try to keep it going because as easy as it might look with the way Kuch is shooting the puck and the points are coming for our line and our team, it’s not quite not that easy and it can easily go the other way. So you just try to ride it out as long as possible.’’

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said seeing Stamkos reach the 600-point mark in his 595th career may have got lost in the shuffle of Saturday’s victory, but it’s a meaningful milestone.

”You can’t overlook that 600 points is a lot of points in this league,’’ he said. “To play that many games and be above a point-per-game player, that’s one thing to do that in 10 games, but to do that in 600 games is pretty impressive. He’s deserved this and you have to be happy for him with the amount of games he’s missed the past few years.’’

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