Stamkos is Roarin' Back!

[A1LeafNation]

Quite ironic for Oiler and Leaf fans to come in and knock a players playoff performance. Kind of hard to knock your players playoffs with their tiny sample sizes, but wouldn't you know Stamkos' playoff points/game is higher than Mcdavid and Matthews.

stamkos has had 10 more years to get there

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

stamkos has had 10 more years to get there

Well then maybe wait until your players actually achieve something in the playoffs before talking trash.

 

[Sky04]

I've always liked Stamkos' game but at the same time he's still a guy who never shows up in big games and that has heavily diminished what people think of him. Absolutely no ability to raise the game of others around him. When he was injured a winger did a better job of elevating his teammates than he did. And now, a young 22yr old centre is doing stuff Stamkos could never do (Ie. play 2 way, winning hockey and raise the game of others).

Stammer is a hell of a fantasy player, but nothing more than that.

Meh could be worse, we could have the best player in the world and watch him rot.

 

[Sky04]

^reg season stamkos, playoff stamkos:

Fits Matthews as well, except Stamkos has help, everyone on the leafs sucks in the playoffs.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Well then maybe wait until your players actually achieve something in the playoffs before talking trash.

Or we can say Stamkos needs to step up in the playoffs. Isn't this thread about Stamkos lol.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Fits Matthews as well, except Stamkos has help, everyone on the leafs sucks in the playoffs.

Matthews was injured last year. He did well in his rookie season.

 

[BullLund]

He's been killing it since that guy made the thread about "what happened to Stamkos"

Seems like that always happens whenever someone creates one of those threads. The guy ends up going on a tear, right after.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Matthews was injured last year. He did well in his rookie season.

Sounds like he is soft and you are making excuses.

 

[RANKKA]

700th point tonight!

remember when Giroux had that? yea no one talked about that.........

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Still a great player, gets overlooked because of Kucherov, Hedman & Point. Tampa’s Stacked!

 

[Connor McConnor]

This might come as a surprise if you're an Oilers fan, but teams are allowed to have more than one star player.

How is that relevant to my post at all? Your comment insinuated that I was insulting the Tampa team. Just pointing out that Stammer is nothing more than a middle level centre who is the #2 on his current team.. It's a compliment

 

[LightningStrikes]

Way to go Captain!

 

[Mulletman]

Seems like many of the kids here were too Young to remember just how good Stamkos actually was back in his prime when he still had his mullet. 60 goals and the most even strength goals in a single season over the last 25 years. Yeah, that's how good Stamkos was in his prime!

 

[ThewThew]

Seems like many of the kids here were too Young to remember just how good Stamkos actually was back in his prime when he still had his mullet. 60 goals and the most even strength goals in a single season over the last 25 years. Yeah, that's how good Stamkos was in his prime!

With Martin st.louis .. he was a beast too bad for injuries

 

[Vegan Knight]

It's something how good Stamkos is but he is overshadowed because Tampa Bay has so many good players on their team.

 

[Mulletman]

It's crazy watching those Stamkos goals from last night and hearing them play MC Hammer every time after he scores. Just reminds me of how much Stamkos' hockey career resembles Mc Hammer's music career and life in general.

I mean this is pretty much Stamkos in his prime:

Stamkos was on top and it seemed like nothing could go wrong and then came the downfall:

And here we see Stamkos nowadays getting embarrassed:

 

[Bozo Nicholson]

Let's be reality.

It's more fun to be fantasy though.

 

[Master P]

It's crazy watching those Stamkos goals from last night and hearing them play MC Hammer every time after he scores. Just reminds me of how much Stamkos' hockey career resembles Mc Hammer's music career and life in general.

I mean this is pretty much Stamkos in his prime:

Stamkos was on top and it seemed like nothing could go wrong and then came the downfall:

And here we see Stamkos nowadays getting embarrassed:

Wow, if you reached any harder then your arm would detach and fall to the ground faster than kadri after a gust of wind.

 

[Murzu]

Is he quietly... roaring back to burn your villages?

 

[LightningStrikes]

Seems like many of the kids here were too Young to remember just how good Stamkos actually was back in his prime when he still had his mullet. 60 goals and the most even strength goals in a single season over the last 25 years. Yeah, that's how good Stamkos was in his prime!

User name checks out.

 

[LightningStrikes]

I've always liked Stamkos' game but at the same time he's still a guy who never shows up in big games and that has heavily diminished what people think of him. Absolutely no ability to raise the game of others around him. When he was injured a winger did a better job of elevating his teammates than he did. And now, a young 22yr old centre is doing stuff Stamkos could never do (Ie. play 2 way, winning hockey and raise the game of others).

Stammer is a hell of a fantasy player, but nothing more than that.

I think this is a fair point. It's not like he's not producing in the playoffs, 22 goals and 51 points thru 66 career playoff games is solid production when there's less time and space and less powerplays normally. But he's had two game winning goals in the playoffs. Not a lot for a guy known to be a sniper and one of his team's key players. Last season's run was especially frustrating in that regard. He has put up the numbers (7 goals, 16 points in 17 games) but losing two elimination games with zero goals for in the ECF makes it easy to put the blame on him (and our other star players). He has yet to step up in the playoffs as his predecessors like Brad Richards, Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis or heck, even Tyler Johnson have done.

So overall I agree, stellar regular season stats and runs like the one he's currently on are satisfying and all but in the end all that matters is how he's playing in April and beyond. He has yet to find that extra gear. Still, his current performance gives us Lightning fans hope that he's found back to greatness and that he has finally overcame his past injuries. That's a tough task if you ask me. Most of us were sure he would continue to decline after his broken leg and blood clots, be a solid 2nd liner with 60-70 points at best.

As others have pointed out, last season he had a red hot start into the season (together with Kucherov) and finished over a point per game. But this time it's not a bunch of secondary assists bolstering his stats, he has a heavy impact on the outcome of games, a positive impact at that, on both ends of the ice. His two-way game has improved a lot, he's not just the trigger man anymore, he's creating plays, winning key faceoffs, taking shifts on the PK, he's doing everything and the best part is, these have all been weaknesses in his game or downright things he has never done before. Right now he excels in his new found role. He has become a way more complete player than we could have ever imagined.

Before his injuries he was pretty one dimensional - and terrific at that, to be sure: 156 goals over three consecute regular seasons, including a 60 goal season and the most even strength goals in a single season in a long time. But now he's a true centerman able to play in all situations and putting up meaningfull points and plenty of them on top. Great to see!

 

[JoVel]

I've given the guy lots of critisism and to be fair, mostly warranted, but lately the Stamkos we've seen has been insane. He's actually been a threat continuously in the offensive zone rather than just a PP specialist. That second goal was just beautiful.

 

[McYoungGuns]

Quite ironic for Oiler and Leaf fans to come in and knock a players playoff performance. Kind of hard to knock your players playoffs with their tiny sample sizes, but wouldn't you know Stamkos' playoff points/game is higher than Mcdavid and Matthews.

u know... it was one Oiler fan, talking about one player, yet u felt the need to pull in an entire fan base ? oh boy, good job generalizing

 

[McYoungGuns]

Meh could be worse, we could have the best player in the world and watch him rot.

because one oiler fan posted what he thought, not anything personal or anything against Tampa as a team? Maybe just rebut what hes saying instead of dragging the best player in the world into a thread that has nothing to do with him????

 

[DFC]

I've always liked Stamkos' game but at the same time he's still a guy who never shows up in big games and that has heavily diminished what people think of him. Absolutely no ability to raise the game of others around him. When he was injured a winger did a better job of elevating his teammates than he did. And now, a young 22yr old centre is doing stuff Stamkos could never do (Ie. play 2 way, winning hockey and raise the game of others).

Stammer is a hell of a fantasy player, but nothing more than that.

The counter to this is it's been a long, long time since we've seen this version of Stamkos. I'm among Stamkos's biggest critics on this board, and I stand by my criticism of him over the years. But the player he's been for the past five years, including last year's 86 point season, was nothing like what we're seeing right now. Aside from a few short stretches, Stamkos, for five years, has been more/less a pedestrian who could provide some nice goal-scoring on the PP, but was a smidge above useless at ES.

I think the coaching staff talked to him after the first Nashville game. He made a plethora of idiotic plays in that game, two of which led directly to Nashville goals. He came out the next game saying he had to get back into a shooting mentality. He's said that a million times, but this time, for the first time in years, he actually did it. And he's still doing it.

So I mean, yeah, I'll be the first to admit you're right, that Stamkos has a long history of turning his game "down" rather than "up" in the playoffs. But he's definitely getting my hopes up, because we haven't seen this version of Stamkos even in the regular season for more than five years, and if this version shows up in the playoffs, he'll be hard to stop.