Saturday night in Tampa, I had the opportunity to get my first glimpse of No. 1 draft pick Steven Stamkos live in the flesh in an NHL uniform.
Must admit, I didn’t see much. Stamkos was virtually invisible in Tampa’s 4-3 overtime loss to Carolina – a game in which the Lightning blew a 3-0 lead — a game they dominated for the first two periods (Barry Melrose has a lot of work to do there).
I must admit, I saw Stamkos a couple of times in junior last winter when I worked as the host for Shaw’s coverage of Soo Greyhounds hockey, and the kid was good, but never great. He had a lot of trouble with that big tough Greyhounds’ defence last year and I wondered if he’d be able to take the pounding a forward gets every single night in the NHL. Especially against teams like Carolina, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
As an NHLer, Stamkos doesn’t have a point yet and he’s a minus-one. I worry about whether this guy really has what it takes to live up to the hype.
Related posts: