TAMPA, Fla. – On the verge of potentially making NHL history, Marty St. Louis is miserable.
Rather than taking a little solace in the fact he could emerge from a Tampa Bay Lightning season gone wrong as the league’s oldest ever scoring champion, the 37-year-old doesn’t see any reason to smile.
“You don’t want to be in this position, especially as you get older,” St. Louis said Wednesday before the Lightning faced Toronto.
In fact, he indicated that he’ll give his performance a long critical look once the schedule wraps up on Saturday and urged his teammates to do the same.
“You always find yourself in these kind of seasons (wondering) `What could I have done more?”‘ said St. Louis. “If you think you couldn’t have done more than there’s something wrong because obviously we’re not where we want to be.”
The Lightning entered play on Wednesday sitting 28th overall in the NHL, which is only good for their draft position. It has prompted general manager Steve Yzerman to spend the last week of the regular season on a scouting trip in Western Canada.
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At least St. Louis and linemate Steven Stamkos have some personal milestones to chase in the remaining games.
They each have a chance to pass Sidney Crosby and take the scoring title while Stamkos also has an outside shot at the goal-scoring crown as well.
St. Louis captured the Art Ross Trophy for most points in 2004 and would be the oldest player ever to claim the trophy. Gordie Howe was 35 when he won his sixth and final Art Ross Trophy. Wayne Gretzky was 33; Mario Lemieux was 32.
However, in a shortened season where the Lightning replaced coach Guy Boucher with Jon Cooper, there doesn’t seem to be much focus on the potential of producing a league scoring champion.
“It puts a damper on things when you win individual awards and your team is not in the playoffs for the award you want most – and obviously that’s the Stanley Cup,” said Stamkos. “I don’t think there’s any consolation prize when you don’t make the playoffs.
“It’s nice to have on the resume but at the end of the day everyone wants to have the Stanley Cup on it.”
What makes the personal success of St. Louis so impressive this season is the fact it came after a four-month lockout. He stayed in North America during the stoppage and only had a six-day training camp to get prepared – a challenge for any player, but especially for a veteran.
Yet there he was sitting on 55 points through 45 games.
Cooper is still in evaluation mode with his new team but doesn’t see any problem with either St. Louis or Stamkos actively chasing significant NHL awards in the days ahead.
“I think ultimately the players would trade in the scoring title to play in the playoffs, but that’s not a reality any longer,” said Cooper. “You know what, if you can get some guy an individual accolade that he’s deserved during the year I don’t see why we don’t try and make that happen.”
Just don’t tell that to St. Louis.
Deeply competitive and at the end of another precious year that will end without a championship, he doesn’t seem too concerned about any potential personal achievements.
“I’m just going to go out there and play and see where the chips fall,” he said.
