Coach Jon Cooper joked that you’d have to be on Mars to not know captain Steven Stamkos’ contract is up after this season.
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Babcock’s decision came after Bernier surrendered five goals on 27 shots in the Leafs loss Tuesday to Tampa.
Stamkos spoke with reporters on Monday in Columbus where he said that he doesn’t let his status “creep into the [locker] room” with the Lightning. “I don’t think there was any difference once the puck dropped”.
Turns out, the game was the craziest part, the Lightning rallying for a potentially galvanizing 5-4 overtime win over the Maple Leafs to stun a sellout crowd of 18,989.
“We showed no quit”, Namestnikov said.
Jonathan Bernier is back with the Toronto Maple Leafs and ready to capitalize on a successful stint in the minors. F Yanni Gourde made his National Hockey League debut for the Lightning.
He also picked up his 10th lost of the season.
“Obviously I do have high expectations and (the numbers) are not where I want them to be”, Stamkos said.
The lack of production has not been from a lack of effort. Tampa Bay center Jonathan Marchessault broke his stick on a shot attempt that set up a Toronto two-on-one, and Rielly scored his fourth goal of the season at 11:34.
While Stamkos didn’t shine during the game, he was still the main attraction. A TSN radio station passed out “Sign Stamkos” signs to fans outside the building, though they weren’t allowed in because they were from a third party.
The Maple Leafs last introduced their current logo in 1987, when the darkened the blue in it from the previous logo, which was brought in for the 1982-83 season.
“He’s scored so many goals and he’s a great player”, Matthias said.
In a game fueled by outside distractions and determination from an injury-burdened lineup, the Lightning used the momentum to pick up their third win in four games. Stamkos said “time will tell” on his contract, and he’s focused on the team, which has won eight of 12. Information about negotiations has been tightly guarded by his camp at Newport Sports and Tampa Bay management.
As rumors started to come about with the breaking of this news, the Tampa Bay Lightning got involved and said in a statement that they flew into Toronto on Tuesday to face a team in which many hockey observers have speculated could be in the running to sign him this coming summer.
Winnik deflected a shot by Roman Polak past Vasilevskiy with 6:32 left in the third period to tie it back up and get the Leafs to overtime.
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Namestnikov scored 2:01 into the three-on-three overtime period. The Canadiens have been in a bit of a funk lately as they fell to 20-9-3 overall but are on a 2-4-1 streak.
