Goal Number 1: Chris Kontos vs. Chicago Blackhawks
Goal Number 2: Chris Kontos vs. Chicago Blackhawks
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Okay, actually we’re not going to break it down that way. I have a lot of free time on my hands, but not quite that much. If you haven’t heard, on Friday Barclay Goodrow sent a puck into an empty net to wrap up the Lightning’s 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. It was his second goal of the game, but more importantly the 6,000th regular season goal scored in Tampa Bay Lightning Franchise history.
It took them 2,147 games to achieve the feat and they are the 24th team in league history to reach that total. At this point they are ahead of only the teams that came into the league after them, but with the way the season is rolling they may catch the Ottawa Senators (6,065) by the end of the season…or possibly by next month. It will take them a little longer to catch the all-time leader, the Montreal Canadiens, who have 21,611. Okay, maybe they won’t catch them, but the Habs do have a 4,596 game head start on the Bolts.
If we narrow the number down to something a little more fair to the Lightning, they are 17th overall in the league since 1992-93 in goals scored (and only 16 goals behind the Canadiens). The Pittsburgh Penguins have had some pretty good offenses during that span and lead everyone with 6,754 goals.
Who cares about the Penguins with their Sidney Crosby, Jaromir Jagr, Evgeni Malkin, Mario Lemeuix, and Dick Tarnstrom? We’re focusing on the Lightning and how they got to 6,000 goals. You know how it seems like they start some games slowly, well that’s a trend that’s existed during their entire span. In the first period they’ve only scored 1,768 in the first 20 minutes of the game. The second period is their best as they’ve lit the lamp 2,111 times. The last few years have seen them close out games strongly and they’ve bumped their third period total up to 2,011.
The Bolts have won 110 overtime games, so yes, that means they’ve scored 110 goals in the bonus frame. They’ve given up 111 overtime goals so, by my rudimentary math, their record is 110-111 in overtime. C’mon, boys, win that next game in OT to even up that record. I’m calling Brayden Point against Florida for that to happen.
Breaking it down by goal type shows that they’ve recorded 4,284 even strength goals. Steven Stamkos has accounted for roughly 6% of those with 263. In fact, three players (Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier, and Marty St. Louis) account for 18% with a total of 762 even strength goals.
On the power play they have 1,513 goals scored with Stamkos once again leading the way. His 158 are 9% of the total. The Big Three’s total of 366 is a whopping 21%. Since 2009-10, 50 of those power play goals have come on a five-on-three. For some reason that’s as far back as NHL.com’s Goals For By Strength goes.
They aren’t the most productive short-handed team. Since 1992-93 they’ve scored 203 time when down at least one skater. That’s 18th in the league during that time span (just one goal behind the Canadiens!) The Calgary Flames have scored a whopping 252 shorties during that time. For the Lightning Marty St. Louis has 28 short-handed goals which is an impressive 14%. Rob Zamuner is next with 14.
Out of current players, Tyler Johnson is the leader with 8, but hasn’t recorded one since the 2018-19 season. If I had to bet on anyone catching St. Louis I would put my money on Anthony Cirelli. He only has 6 right now, but with his speed and youth, hopefully he has many years left in a Lightning uniform to get 23 more.
Including Goodrow’s goal on Friday there have 209 empty net goals by Lightning players. Want to guess who has the most? Anyone? Anyone out there with a guess? Yes, you in the back with the Enrico Ciccone jersey. That’s correct, it’s Steven Stamkos with 16 goals into an undefended net. For the record, Ciccone had 5 goals, all even strength in a Tampa Bay sweater. That breaks down as one goal per every 120 penalty minutes that he had for the Lightning.
Forty-one players have scored just one goal in a Lightning uniform. One of those players happens to be part of the greatest point-scoring brother combinations in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky has 2,857 career NHL points while his brother Brent has 4 – one of those was a goal (scored on 11/2/1993 against the Quebec Nordiques). For the record, Wayne only had 5 goals against the Lightning in his career. Alex Ovechkin is the all-time leader in goals against the Lightning with 48.
Speaking of most goals against the Lightning. The player that had the most combined goals for and against the Lightning is Vincent Lecavalier. He scored 383 goals in a Lightning uniform and 1 against them. Lecavalier potted a power play goal for the Flyers on 11/27/2013 in a 4-2 Lightning victory.
There are 84 skaters that have suited up for the Lightning over their 28 seasons that haven’t contributed even one goal, those slackers. Mattias Ohlund played a whopping 139 regular season games with the Bolts without finding the back of the net. Oddly enough, it only took two postseason games before he scored a goal. Guess he was just saving the offense for when it meant something. It was an empty-net, short-handed goal against the Penguins in a 5-1 blowout. He would play 16 more playoff games without scoring another one.
The Lightning’s most productive year was 2018-19 when they put up a whopping 319 goals. The fewest was in 1994-95 when they only scored 120 goals. Granted, that was a strike-shortened season. For a full 82 game-season it was 1997-98 when they could only find the back of the net 151 times.
So far this season they’ve scored 32 goals and are on pace to score about 199, which would be their 23rd most productive season. Not too shabby for a 56-game season.
