Stamkos has hockey world talking, blogging
I just want to watch it happen. Stamkos has been coming for a while. He deserves to be in the same conversation as Crosby and Ovechkin, not yet as dominant, but close.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your blogs.
That’s what Steven Stamkos did on Thursday, popping three goals in Tamp Bay’s insane 8-7 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers to match his number of games (19) with goals scored.
No one knows what total Stamkos will reach in his third NHL season. In the giddy aftermath of his hattie, the twittersphere was hopping with predictions from 60 to 80 for the Splendid Stammer. I don’t know either, except that I (along with hundreds of others) picked him to win the Rocket Richard Trophy for goals scored.
Stamkos had 51 last season, to share the Rocket with Sidney Crosby, but the kid (he’s 22) is more of a pure scorer than Sid, and he could own this trophy for a while.
Me? I don’t know where he’ll finish either, though I suspect it will be north of 60, and I’m confident Wayne Gretzky‘s record of 92 goals in a season is safe.
I just want to watch it happen. Stamkos has been coming for a while. He deserves to be in the same conversation as Crosby and Ovechkin, not yet as dominant, but close.
And the good news? He’s as nice and decent a person off the ice as he is on it.
I feel privileged to have been able to cover Stamkos at the 2009 world hockey championships in Switzerland, where he was a revelation. Canada’s best forward, and an obvious star in the making.
He should have been on Canada’s Olympic roster for Vancouver, but I get Steve Yzerman‘s decision not to rush Stamkos. He’ll have lots of Olympics and World Cups in his future.
Probably a Stanley Cup, too.
It certainly should have Sens fans talking. Ottawa hasn’t won a playoff series in three years and it’ll be a decade before they do so unless the team gets the message. The team is getting too old and broken down to compete come playoff time. We can patch the leaky ship with free agent plugs like Gonchar and Kovalev but in reality we need to let the team bottom out to get some talent from the draft. This year when Leclaire and Kovalev come off the books I recommend we save the 9.0M in cap space. Let the team get a couple of lottery picks because it’s what we desperately need. If we wait until Alfie retires to start this process we’re going to be a bottom feeder for a lot longer. We had a window to win one for Alfie and we didn’t capitalize. Anyone who thinks this current Sens squad is due for more than a first round exit is probably going to be sorely disappointed. They just aren’t good enough to match up against elite teams like Philly in a 7 game series four times in a row.
Dream on Bejamin, the Senators will keep tweaking and patching and we’ll become Islanders North, with more cap space.
To think we could have had Tavares if we hadn’t canned Hartsburg, just brutal.