Perry proving perfect fit on third line for Lightning three-peat bid

NASHVILLE --Corey Perry first heard from Steven Stamkos. Next, it was Victor Hedman who reached out to the forward after he signed a two-year, $2 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 29, 2021. Ryan McDonagh touched base with him as well.

The message from Stamkos, the Lightning's captain and forward, and defensemen Hedman and McDonagh amped up Perry even more than he already was to be joining the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
"When you have 'Stammer', 'Heddy' and 'Mac' all saying, 'We're not done, we want to win again, taste it again,' you know it's going to be a heck of a season," Perry said last week at the 2022 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series. "As soon as I signed that contract and they reached out to me and said those words, 'We're not done,' I knew what this team was all about."
The 36-year-old has fit in perfectly to become one of Tampa Bay's most important players, a scoring threat and hard-to-play-against vital piece of its bottom-six forward group, playing right wing on a line with left wing Patrick Maroon and center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
"I played with Patty for quite a few years in Anaheim, played together on a line [with center Ryan Getzlaf] and we played well," Perry said. "I didn't know what the lines were going to be or where I was going to fit in, but we found a home on that line with 'Belly.' Three guys, not the quickest of feet, but we like playing with the puck, playing below the goal line. It has meshed right with my game."
Maroon, Bellemare and Perry have formed a cohesive third line to take the place of Blake Coleman, Yanni Gourde and Barclay Goodrow, who comprised the Lightning's third line of the previous two seasons.
That group combined to score 33 points (13 goals, 20 assists) in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs and 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in the 2021 Cup run before all three left Tampa Bay; Coleman as a free agent to the Calgary Flames, Goodrow traded to the New York Rangers and Gourde selected by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.
Heading into the Lightning's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, BSSUN, ATTSN-PT, ESPN+, NHL LIVE), Perry has scored 29 points (15 goals, 14 assists) in 52 games this season, including 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists) in his past 34 games after picking up two assists through his first 17. He scored his 400th NHL goal in a 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 23.
Maroon has scored 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) and Bellemare 15 (six goals, nine assists), each in 51 games this season.

"I think Maroon is having the year he's having a big part because of Corey Perry," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "He's found a way to elevate other player's games, which is a great trait to have."
Said Maroon of Perry, "He's contagious. You always want to be around him. He's had a huge impact on this team."
Initially, it was easy to look at Perry's signing with Tampa Bay as an exercise in, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. His teams, the Dallas Stars in 2020 and the Montreal Canadiens last season, each lost to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.
"Tough two years," Perry said. "Second place. But this is a heck of a hockey team and it finds ways to win. When I got the call saying they offered me a contract, I jumped right away at it."
That's when Perry found out Tampa Bay players had actually been beating the drum with management to sign him ever since he became an unrestricted free agent when the Anaheim Ducks bought out the final two years of his eight-year contract on June 19, 2019.
Perry played 14 seasons with Anaheim, scoring 776 points (372 goals, 404 assists) in 988 games.
He is second on the Ducks' all-time list in goals (behind Teemu Selanne's 457) and third in assists and points (behind Ryan Getzlaf and Selanne in each category).
Perry signed one-year contracts with the Stars and Canadiens the past two seasons.
"The players had been pushing," Stamkos said. "I don't know how much say we actually have, but it's because of playing him in the playoffs, just knowing what he brings at that time of the season. He's a gamer and I think a lot of people forgot how good he is, especially offensively."
With Perry playing in the Western Conference for so long, and in the all-Canada Scotia North Division last season, Cooper said he didn't have a full understanding of just how effective Perry can be until this season.
"Like, he is a slick, sneaky, skilled player all around there," Cooper said. "He's just oozing with hockey sense all around the net."
Stamkos said it's because of Perry's instincts as an offensive player, the same instincts that helped him win the Hart Trophy, voted as the NHL most valuable player, and the Rocket Richard Trophy as the leading goal-scorer (50) with the Ducks in 2010-11.
"You don't lose that," Stamkos said. "Players lose a step over the course of their career or they may not shoot it as hard as they once did, but the instinct is still there. Maybe he didn't get that opportunity at the beginning in Montreal, but you saw what he did in the playoffs (10 points; four goals, six assists in 22 postseason games). There were games in the Final where I thought he was their best forward."
It made Stamkos and his teammates want Perry even more. Management found a way this time, giving him the second year on the contract as incentive to sign.
Perry has delivered.
"He's been huge for us," Stamkos said. "When you lose some of the players that we did, to be able to go out and add a guy like that for the contract that he has, bargain is a huge understatement."