Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos scored his 1,000th NHL point on Thursday when he assisted on teammate Nick Paul’s second goal of the game in a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Stamkos, who is the 95th player in history to score 1,000 points, and the first to do so with Florida, joined this select group with his 15th assist of the campaign.
The first overall pick in the 2008 draft made it there in his 945th meeting on the Bettman circuit.
Stamkos helped the Lightning win the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021, and advance to the Finals last summer.
He will soon be looking for his 500th professional goal, when he totals 494.
“I’ve never celebrated a secondary assist so much in my career,” joked Stamkos.
The Lightning captain raised both arms in the air as the puck crossed the goal line and all of his teammates came off the bench to celebrate with him.
“It’s special,” Stamkos said. It’s an individual stat, but there are so many people who have helped me reach this plateau. It makes you think. It brings back a lot of memories. ”
It was the eleventh defeat for the Flyers (8-11-5), whose slide into hell continues after a surprising start to the campaign.
After Paul’s brace, Ross Colton inflated Tampa’s lead (14-8-1) with nine seconds left in the second period, taking advantage of a turnover to hit the target on Corey Perry’s throw return.
Travis Konecny, back in the game after a presence in the infirmary, managed to deprive Andrei Vasilevskiy of a shutout by scoring at 11:23 of the last third.
Except that Carter Hart made sure that the hope does not last long, since he fumbled by misjudging an innocuous release from Ian Cole.
The puck gave gently against the boards behind Hart’s net before weaving between the post and his equipment.
The Lightning sit six points behind the second-place Atlantic Division Toronto Maple Leafs. Jon Cooper’s squad has two games in hand.
