NHL All-Star Game 2018: Steven Stamkos named Atlantic Division Captain
Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has been named the captain of the Atlantic Division in the 2018 NHL All-Star Game.
One of the biggest moments of the year for hockey fans is right around the corner. The 2018 NHL All-Star Weekend is set to kick off on January 27, 2018, at the Amalie Arena right here in the heart of the Bolts Nation.
However, before you can have an event like this, you kind of have to pick the teams who will be taking the ice. This all starts with selecting the team captains. The NHL puts this daunting task in the hands of the fans.
Over the last couple of weeks, the fans have been submitting their picks to the NHL All-Star Fan Vote to decide who the captain of each Division should be. After much deliberation among the fans, we now have our Atlantic Division captain.
The Atlantic Division will be captained by none other than our very own Tampa Bay Lightning captain, Steven Stamkos. To those of us here in the Bolts Nation, this seemed like nothing more than a foregone conclusion. Of course, Stamkos was going to be named the captain, right?
Just take a closer look at his record this season. Stammer has played in all 39 games with the Lightning this season. In this amount of time, the captain has brought home 17 goals and 32 assists for a total of 49 points. These are definitely not shabby numbers heading into the halfway point of the season.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Stamkos currently leads the team in assists and is in fifth place in the NHL in the same category. Stammer is also in second place on the team in overall points. The only player higher than him in the team rankings is his linemate and partner-in-crime, Nikita Kucherov.
Ever since being paired with Kucherov and forward Vladislav Namestnikov, Stamkos has been able to push himself outside of his normal limits. The line has tremendous chemistry and has quickly become one of the most dangerous line pairings in the National Hockey League.
This year will not be the first trip to the All-Star Game for Steven Stamkos. In fact, 2018 marks Stammer’s fifth trip to the NHL All-Star Game. His first trip to the weekend-long event was back in 2011. Since then, he has made the trip in 2012, 2015, and 2016.
The Lightning’s 25th Anniversary Season has been an exciting time for both the team and everyone here in the Bolts Nation. The Lightning has led the NHL in points for a good majority of the season and the Lightning was the first team this season to reach both the 50 and 60 point mark. Did we forget to mention this all happened before the halfway point in the season?
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Add in the fact the Lightning is hosting one of the biggest events of the year…yeah, this has been a pretty good season for the Bolts and their fans. Maybe, just maybe, if the team continues to play the way they have through the first half of the season, the Lightning may have some new hardware at the end of the season.