Elite goal scorers like Steven Stamkos understand that goals can suddenly start coming out of nowhere when it’s hard to find the back of the net.
Just keep shooting.
But even Stamkos admits the scoring drought could be upon him. The more pucks hit the post or run wild off the stick blade, the more you’ll be trying to find the perfect shot to break out of a slump.
And we need to go back to basics and continue shooting with even greater determination than ever before. Stamkos’ persistence paid off Thursday night as the Lightning, who had won eight in a row, scored four goals for a 7-4 come-from-behind victory over the Oilers, the hottest team in the league.
Stamkos has scored 529 goals in his career, which ranks him 36th on the NHL’s all-time goals list, but before Thursday night he had never scored more than four goals in a game. He has 12 hat tricks in his career.
“He’s going to be in the Hall of Fame because he shot the puck,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “For some players, they have an eye for the puck and the more they do it, the more the puck goes in.”
Stamkos entered Thursday goalless in his past five games and missed the game in Seattle due to illness — and his struggles weren’t due to not being able to shoot the puck. During this period, he had 18 shots on goal, 30 attempts, and 15 scoring chances.
Stamkos, who is seeking his 200th career power play goal, had not scored on the man advantage in his previous eight games. As a group, the Lightning are 0-for-9 in their last three games and 4-for-28 (14.3%) in their last nine games.
“We’ve had some really quality chances here, probably the last week or two, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net. And it probably came together in moments like this and that’s what happened.” said Stamkos. “They usually come in spurts, so just try not to get too down and just keep shooting the puck. And obviously they came in (Thursday), which was really nice to see.”
Stamkos started early, scoring on the first shift on the power play as the Lightning wreaked havoc in front of Edmonton’s net. Nick Paul pushed the puck to Stamkos in the left circle for a one-timer, making Stamkos the 20th player to reach 200 power-play goals.
“I feel like once you have that one first shift of the game, everything gets better the rest of the night,” Stamkos said. “You were talking about the goal leg, and the puck feels a little bit better on the blade. All of a sudden my legs feel a little better, so that was good.”
Stamkos’ most important goal of the night came 6:48 into the third, when he hit the puck out of the air from a tight angle (both feet were over the end line) and hit Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner short. It went wide and tied the game.
He then surprised Skinner again when he made a rush just inside the blue line and took a long-range shot, using defenseman Evan Bouchard to screen the goaltender and put the Lightning up 5-3. Stamkos added an empty netter in the final minutes of the game.
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He only had seven shot attempts, but all of them were on goal.
“I always think he needs to shoot a lot more,” Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev said. “If he takes 10 shots in a game, he’ll score two points, because he’s got a really accurate shot and he’s been in the league for 15 years as a leader on this team. Body.
“He’s just a threat. He took a shot from the blue line (Thursday) and scored because the opposing goalie hit a little screen. So no matter where he takes the shot from, there’s a chance.”
After Thursday’s performance, Stamkos’ 90 shots on goal ranked in the 95th percentile among NHL skaters, according to NHL Edge. His 15.6% shooting percentage is in his 85th percentile.
“I’ve been hitting a lot of posts lately and I haven’t had a chance to get into the net like I normally would. So listen, you’re human,” Stamkos said. “Sometimes I get a little bit wrapped up in my head. But when you get an opportunity like that, you just try to keep shooting. In the end, the chances of them going to the net… They say it’s high. There are some goals (Thursday) that probably weren’t traditional goals, but you never know when you throw the puck towards the net.”
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