Tampa Bay Lightning: Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, October Stars
Tampa Bay Lightning forwards Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov have been named the first and second Stars of the Month respectively by the NHL
Both Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning were named to the stars of the month for October by the NHL
NHL.com has released their three stars for the month of October and they’re overwhelmingly Lightning. Both the first and second stars were awarded to Lightning players, and it’s not hard to guess which players received the honors.
Captain of the Bolts Steven Stamkos was awarded the first star of the month. Stamkos is currently the NHL’s points leader with 24 points. He also has the most assists in the league currently with 18. He matched Kucherov’s point streak at 11 games and has registered at least 1 point in 12 of the 13 games so far.
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Kucherov has matched many of Stamkos’s accomplishments. Like Stamkos, Kucherov also had at least 1 point in each of the first 11 g
mes of the season. He also had a goal in each of the first 7 games of the season, making him just the 6th player in the modern era of the NHL to accomplish the feat. This secured him a place in the record books of the NHL alongside names like Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux, and Wayne Gretzky.
It’s already been a season of milestones for both Kucherov and Stamkos. In addition to Kucherov’s goal streak, the duo’s 11 game point streak made them the first teammates to accomplish the feat since the 1992-1993 season. These streaks also matched Martin St. Louis’s
11 game streak for the longest season-opening point streak in Lightning franchise history.
Stamkos scored his 113th career power play goal on October 21st against the Pittsburgh Penguins. This put him in sole possession of the Lightning’s franchise powerplay goal record, past Vincent Lecavalier’s previous record of 112. In the same game, he also scored his 600th career point.
Kucherov’s goal streak was not only a record in the NHL, but was also a Lightning franchise record. In addition to this, Kucherov moved past Dan Boyle and into 10th place on the Lightning’s all-time points list.
The duo has had an electric (pun intended) start to the season. They have proven that their line is one of, if not the, deadliest line in the NHL. Jaden Schwartz earned the honor of the third star, but if you ask us, that honor should have gone to Andrei Vasilevskiy.
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Vasilevskiy recorded 10 wins in the month of October, which makes him only the third in league history to accomplish the feat. He has also passed his 100th game in the NHL and is currently on a 9 game win streak that he will undoubtedly look to extend tonight against the Rangers. Regardless of the titles, the month of October was a good time to be a Bolts fan for many, many reasons.