Krenn: Three Things we learned from blowing out the Leafs

After tying Martin St. Louis as the Tampa Bay Lightning's all-time scoring leader against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, Steven Stamkos said, "[It] sucks to have something that special for me happen in a game that we don't win."
Stamkos surpassed St. Louis on Thursday night and it wasn't in just a win - it was in a blowout.

The Lightning earned their biggest win of the season on Thursday, taking down the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 8-1. The Bolts previously won a game by six goals this year, but Thursday's victory was the largest margin of victory to this point of the 2021-22 season. The loss to Detroit on Tuesday left a sour taste in Tampa Bay's mouth and head coach Jon Cooper was ready to put that loss behind them.
"I'm looking forward to tonight, just for the mere fact that the way the last game went," Cooper said following Thursday's morning skate. "We're getting to a point now - there's eight teams. Who knows what's going to happen? But this is one, just from the last one we played, that I'd like to see a little different result."
It was an entirely different result on a multitude of levels. The Lightning came out hungry and aggressive in the first period, recording 18 hits through the first 20 minutes of the game. To put that in perspective, Tampa Bay recorded 18 hits total in three periods against Detroit on Tuesday.
Neither team found the back of the net through one period before the Lightning takeover began at the 3:54 mark of the second period. Alex Killorn tipped home a point shot from Erik Cernak for his 24th goal of the season to give Tampa Bay the 1-0 lead.
Shortly after the halfway point of the second period, Nick Paul corralled a puck out of mid-air before feeding a cross-crease pass to Ross Colton, who fired a shot home for his 20th goal of the season.
Then, just 1:01 later - history.
In a play that Lightning fans have seen so many times on the power play, Victor Hedman got the puck at the point before feeding Nikita Kucherov at the right circle. Kucherov took two steps and fired a pass to the left circle for Steven Stamkos, who blasted his patented one-timer past Kallgren for point number 954.
Not only did Stamkos overtake St. Louis as the franchise's all-time leading scorer, but Kucherov picked up his 600th career point with the assist.
The Lightning would add one more second-period goal off the stick of Kucherov to match a season-best four-goal period. Tampa Bay followed that up with another four-goal period in the third to put the bow on an emphatic 8-1 win.
After a dominant first period against Detroit on Tuesday, the Bolts took their foot off the gas pedal. On Thursday night, there were no brakes. The Lightning haven't been focusing on wins and losses as much as playing the right way. While a playoff spot is already secured for Tampa Bay, a win like the one on Thursday could be a springboard into more consistent play that fans have grown so used to watching.
It was a wild night at AMALIE Arena on Thursday. Here's what we learned from the eight-goal, blowout win.

1. STAMMER TIME
It was a night of milestones on Thursday night, but none were bigger than Stamkos surpassing St. Louis atop the Lightning leaderboard for all-time points.
Following Stamkos's 34th goal of the season, the crowd gave a standing ovation as a video tribute was played for the Lightning captain. Recapping Stamkos's incredible run to the top of the leaderboard, the video showed the NHL Draft, the first goal, the Stanley Cups, and so many other moments from the Markham, Ontario native's journey.
There was so much history to take in watching the video, but one thing stuck out more than anything else - the narrator. The voice sounded familiar to Stamkos before no one other than Martin St. Louis appeared on the Jumbotron.
"It's funny when you're on the ice, you don't hear it as clear, I think, as when you're in the in the stands," Stamkos said. "It took me a while and I'm like, 'Who's talking here?' Then I figured out it was Marty and he popped up at the end. I can't wait to give him a call, maybe not tonight, but tomorrow.
"Obviously everyone in this room knows how much he's meant to me, so to be up there in the record books with him is surreal. I don't really know what to say. [It's] funny how it all worked out here tonight and I'll definitely cherish this moment for a long time."
It was a moment of history for the Lightning organization as Cooper and others took a moment away from the tunnel vision of the game at hand to take in Stamkos's accomplishment.
"How could you not," Cooper asked. "I think the Leafs were glued on it too. That's a big moment, anytime you're going to be franchise leader in an organization that's been around for 30 years and the guys you're passing are Hall of Famers.
"What an accomplishment and he's got so much more left in the tank, but wow. I've had a front row seat to about 600 of those and they never get old."
From Stamkos to Cooper to Killorn, the moment hit everyone. There are a lot of players on the Lightning roster that have been together for some time now, making Thursday night that much more special.
"It was awesome," said Killorn. "We knew it was a matter of time when it was going happen.
"For me, I've seen a ton of them. I've been with him for 11 years now. To see him do it and have the season he's having right now - [he's] so consistent. The amount of points he's had, it's really impressive and I'm really proud to call him a teammate and a friend."
Moments that big just can't be rehearsed. There's no faking raw emotion. Stamkos wasn't sure what he was going to feel when that moment happened and that adrenaline rush is part of what made the whole thing so special.
"It was just more emotional than I thought it would be," Stamkos said. "You can never really prepare yourself. I had no clue about the video tribute.
"The fans were amazing. To be out there on the ice when it's just you saluting that crowd, it's not quite skating around with the Stanley Cup, but it's a pretty special moment if you can have any anything like that happen to you in your career and be recognized as an individual like that.
"It just brings back all the times that you've spent with the guys here in Tampa, all the people that have helped you along your way - your family, your friends. It's just that rush of emotion and adrenaline. You don't know how it's going to feel until it happens, so that's the cool part about it.
"Like I said, to do it the way it happened with Kuch and Heddy, who have assisted on many of my goals on the power play on the one-timer - it was just it was a special moment."
From two Stanley Cups to two Maurice "Rocket" Richard trophies and everything in between, Stamkos has had some amazing accomplishments throughout his career with the Lightning. The wildest part of it all - he isn't done yet.

2. MILESTONE NIGHT
It was truly a night of milestones on Thursday. In fact, another major milestone occurred on the same goal that pushed Stamkos past St. Louis.
With the primary assist on Stamkos's goal, Kucherov picked up his 600th career NHL point and became the fastest player in Lightning history to hit that mark. It took Kucherov just 557 games to hit the 600-point mark, joining Stamkos, St. Louis, and Vincent Lecavalier as the only four players in Lightning history to eclipse 600 points.
In a league filled with so much talent, only five active skaters reached the 600-point mark quicker than Kucherov: Connor McDavid (421 GP), Sidney Crosby (430 GP), Alex Ovechkin (464 GP), Evgeni Malkin (490 GP) and Leon Draisaitl (544 GP).
"When Pointer was out tonight, I knew I was gonna play with Kuch, whether it was on the power play or five-on-five," said Stamkos. "I told him, I'm definitely keeping the puck. He's got at least 600 or 700 more points to come.
"This record may not last that long with Kuch around, so I told them right away, 'Congrats on 600, but I'm keeping the puck.'"
It was a memorable night for both Stamkos and Kucherov, with number 86 scoring his 20th goal of the season on a power play at the 15:07 mark of the second period. It marked the seventh 20-goal season of Kucherov's career. He has scored a goal in four consecutive games and has nine goals over his last 10 contests.
Then you have Killorn, who picked up his 400th career point with an assist on Kucherov's power-play goal. Killorn became just the eighth player in Lightning franchise history to his the 400-point mark.
"It means a lot," said Killorn. "I'm really proud of that. Drafted in 2007, if you told me that, I don't know if I would have believed you.
"It's been a great ride. I've been fortunate that I kind of came in at the right time and things have gone well for us recently, but I'm super excited and I feel like I still have a lot of hockey left to play, so it's great."
Killorn ranks fifth all-time for games played and goals for the Lightning as well, along with ninth in assists and eighth in points.
Finally, there's Colton, who scored his 20th goal of the season to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead in the first period. It marked the first 20-goal season of Colton's young career.
Since the start of 2022, he's been one of the hottest players on the roster with 17 goals. Since the start of the new year, only Kucherov (19) and Stamkos (18) have found the back of the net more than Colton.
He has five points (4G, 1A) in his last two games and 11 points (9G, 2A) in his last 11 contests.
Only eight other players in Lightning history have scored 20 or more goals in their first or second NHL season: Brayden Point, Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Palat, Stamkos, Brad Richards, Lecavalier, and Alexander Selivanov.

3. BACK ON TRACK
It's one game, but boy was it a good one. After the loss to Detroit and a near loss to Anaheim, it was easy to question where the Lightning were at in comparison to other playoff teams.
Toronto came into tonight with an 8-1-1 record during the month of April. The Bolts? They were 4-4-2 in April before tonight.
It was a big game against a team that Tampa Bay very well may face off with in the first round of the playoffs. After a win like tonight, the Bolts have to be feeling good, but they know it's just one game.
"It was certainly a big game for us," said Stamkos. "We didn't play very well against them last time around in our building. We didn't have a great one last game against Detroit, so we knew we'd respond.
"In the grand scheme of things, this game probably doesn't mean much, but it's something for our group to build on. We can sit here and say they probably didn't have their best game and we played pretty well. The script was flipped last time.
"It is nice to play well against a very good team over there and if we happen to see them, we definitely have felt each other out a little more tonight in terms of the physicality and the stuff after the score was kind of out of hand. That's hockey and I think I'm just more proud of the bounce back that we had."
While the Maple Leafs were without Auston Matthews and Jake Muzzin on Thursday night, the Lightning were without Brayden Point, who is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury and hopeful to play this Saturday.
"We played a team that's a division rival," Cooper said. "We've never really played in the playoffs, but a team we see few times a year.
"Last time we played them in this building, the score wasn't as bad as tonight's was, but it was fairly similar just the other way. I think we had a lot to play for tonight, just kind of defending our home turf a little bit against a really good Leafs team.
"I know they were missing a 60-goal scorer, but it was a good effort by us, so hopefully we can continue this."
Just like one loss doesn't define a team, neither does one win. But to beat a potential playoff opponent in such dominant fashion on home ice - that has to feel good for Tampa Bay.