Steven Stamkos Fansite

Stamkos showed off his fighting skills for the first time in his NHL career last Wednesday against the New York Rangers when he dropped the gloves against another young star, Nikolai Zherdev.

Steven first gave a good body check to Zherdev, who didn’t appreciate the gesture. Zherdev followed Steven Stamkos, and after some pushing and shoving, the two young hockey players dropped the gloves to the pleasure of the crowd.

Stamkos got a couple of good rights in, but, all and all, I call this one a draw.

The Lighting gave Barry Melrose the boot, but Steven Stamkos certainly won’t be loosing sleep over it. New interim coach, Rick Tocchet took over and is trying to restore confidence to young Stamkos by giving him more (deserved) ice time.

While Melrose was coach, Steven never played more than 15 minutes in a single game. Against Carolina, earlier this week, Stamkos touched ice for 17:55 minutes, during which he had an assist and had nine shots on net. He even started the game alongside Vinny Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis.

Tocchet plans on giving more ice time to the rookie – time will tell what Steve will do with it.

Steven Stamkos was the number one pick in the 2008 NHL entry Draft! Looks like he’ll be playing with Vinny Levalier and Martin St-Louis in Tampa Bay next year.

Tampa Bay won the lottery and it was no surprise to hear them say Stamkos’ name last week as the 2008 NHL first draft pick. The Lightning finished last this season, but with big names like Lecavalier and St-Louis, Stamkos shouldn’t feel too much pressure in his first NHL season like Crosby did three years ago.