Stamkos Nets Hat Trick to Join 500 Goal Club

Good morning and happy Thursday, January 19th.

We've got some genius readers as half of yesterday's poll participants predicted Marc-Edouard Vlasic would have the best plus-minus. His +1 bested Travis Hamonic (-1), Adam Pelech (N/A, injured), Chris Tanev (-2), and Tyler Myers (-2).

Enjoy tonight's busy NHL schedule (13 games on the docket, jackpot 🍾) and we'll see you first thing tomorrow morning. 👊

Leave it to Steven Stamkos to reach 500 career goals in grandiose fashion.

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward reached the milestone en route to registering his 11th career hat trick (watch all 3 goals here) to help his squad register a 5-2 road win against the Vancouver Canucks.

Stamko, 32, is the 47th player to score 500, but only the 19th to do it before playing his 1,000th game and the 23rd to do it playing with one team. This was his 965th NHL game.

“I’ve watched that kid grow into a man, a phenomenal leader, “ Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “He’s a generational goal scorer…Those guys don’t come around that often. Enjoy him while you can. I’ve been extremely fortunate to enjoy him putting that puck in the net hundreds of times.”

He joins Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (538) and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (810) as the only active players in the 500 goal club. The next closest player is Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin at 460 goals.

Stamkos’ 500th was his first goal of the night. He buried an Alex Killorn backdoor feed past goalie Spencer Martin at 4:40 of the first period to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.

The three goals allowed him to reach 20 goals in a season for the 13th time, vaulting him past Vinny Lecavalier for a new Lightning record. Stamkos, owning 1,022 career points, is generally regarded as the greatest player in the Lightning’s 30-year history.

“The thing that made me the most proud is what he said to the team after the game, and how he thanked everybody,” Cooper said.

The Lightning, on a quest to reach the Stanley Cup for the fourth consecutive season, have won five in a row to move two points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division standings.

🦈 Erik Karlsson scored a goal and added three assists in the Sharks' 5-3 comeback win over the Stars last night. The 32-year-old Swedish defenseman broke the 3-3 tie with a beautiful high short side snipe (watch the goal here) halfway through the third period and the Sharks never looked back as Logan Couture added the empty-netter with under a minute left in regulation. With his second point of the game, Karlsson became the first defenseman and just 6th player to hit 60 points this season.

🤕 Montreal Canadiens' No. 1 overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky is out three months with a lower-body injury. Fortunately, the injury sustained against the Rangers Sunday night won't require surgery but is likely the end of Slafkovsky's rookie season. The 18-year-old Slovakian forward collected 4 goals and 10 points through 39 games, averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time per game.

Who was the first player in NHL history to score 100 points in a single season, when he scored 126 total points?

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Phil Esposito was the first NHL player to record a 100-point season, finishing with 126 points in 1968-69 .