Lightning Round: It’s all about The Captain today

Congratulations, Steven Stamkos

Last night, while a vast majority of y’all were likely sleeping, Steven Stamkos scored his 500th career NHL regular season goal in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 5-2 victory. It came against the same team that he scored his 499th goal - the Vancouver Canucks. The crowd was nice enough to give him a standing ovation for reaching the milestone, and he returned the favor by giving them a few more goals as he posted his franchise-leading 11th career hat trick. Only 498 more to get to 1,000!

How about a little Mish? Dave Mishkin, who has seen more than his fair share of Stamkos goals with the radio call:

Giving up a player’s 500th goal is something of a tradition for the Canucks. Stamkos is the 6th player to record the historic goal against the franchise. He’s in some pretty impressive company:

He hit the number in a relatively low amount of games played:

Some of his other memorable goals.

Joe Smith talked with other 500-goal scorers about the accomplishment and what it means.

Chris Krenn posts his 10 favorite Steven Stamkos goals:

Celebrating with his teammates:

“It’s very special” and then he thanks his teammates. Typical Stamkos.

Steven. Stamkos.

Coach Jon Cooper comments on the accomplishment after the game:

“My best friend on the team.”

Alex Killorn and Stamkos have been together for 11 years. Wow.

Congratulations to the best player in franchise history.