It hasn't been a great season in Tampa Bay by any stretch of the imagination for the Lightning . But it's been a great one for Steven Stamkos .
With a first-period snipe of a goal against Ilya Bryzgalov and the Flyers, Stamkos netted his career-best 53rd goal of the season. That was good enough for a new Lightning franchise record, surpassing Vincent Lecavalier's mark set in 2006-07.
To further illustrate how good of a scorer Stamkos has become, only 11 of those 53 goals this season have come on the power play. Compare that to his first three seasons when more than 1/3 of his goals came on the man advantage.
His scoring pace has slowed down a little of late so it's unlikely that he'll get to 60 goals this season, but you never say never with a guy who scores this much.
By the way, as a point of reference, Stamkos has scored 25 percent of the Lightning's goals this season. Whoa now. It's been a great season for him, no doubt, but that still doesn't seem to bode all that well for the Lightning, but to be fair they've had most of their problems on the defensive side.
Oh by the way, Stamkos is still only 22. So yea, this probably won't be the last time he sets the franchise goals record.
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