Brandon Hagel is mesmerized and motivated by Steven Stamkos‘leadership and play this season, especially during the Tampa Bay Lightning captain’s active 14-game point streak.
Hagel, the Lightning’s 24-year-old forward, joined co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke on the “NHL @TheRink” podcast Wednesday and discussed what makes Stamkos at age 32 still one of the best players in the NHL.
Stamkos has 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) during his streak, the second longest of his NHL career (18 games, Jan. 9-March 11, 2010), and is second on the Lightning with 34 points (16 goals, 18 assists) in 28 games this season.
“He always wants to be the best,” Hagel said. “He always wants to be on the ice. He’s giving it 100 percent every time. He’ll put his face in front of a puck and that goes a long way for a group of players following a leader when they see their captain being able to block shots. The milestones he’s hitting are unbelievable.”
Stamkos reached 1,000 points in the NHL against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 1 and he’s three goals from 500. He is 50 games away from 1,000 for his career.
Rosen and Roarke were also joined by NHL.com Washington-based staff writer Tom Gulitti, who was in Chicago when the Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin became the third player in NHL history to reach 800 goals with a hat trick in Washington’s 7-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks. Gulitti discussed what it was like to be in the building when history was made and where Ovechkin can go from here.
The co-hosts also dissected the Capitals’ chances of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs, discussed Mitchell Marner‘s 23-game point streak (11 goals, 21 assists) and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 15-game point streak (12-0-3), and rehashed some of what happened at the NHL Board of Governors meetings earlier this week.
The “NHL @TheRink” podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
—
Listen: New episode of NHL @TheRink
.