The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to etch their names into the annals of National Hockey League history.
The Lightning matched an NHL record for fewest games needed to reach 50 wins, reach the half-century mark in just 66 games with a 5-1 win against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
Prior to Saturday, the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings were the only team to do it as quickly, with a 50-12-4 record in their 66th game of that season.
“We want to win as many as we can,” Victor Hedman said after the game. “Big for us to bounce back after that game in Boston. We wanted to make sure we came out hard.”
Nikita Kucherov is the first player to record 75 assists in a single season since Henrik Sedin did it in 2010-11. With 16 games remaining, he’ll likely become the 4th player to hit 80 since 2005-06. pic.twitter.com/2WfCzBPKAD
— Evan Sporer (@ev_sporer) March 3, 2019
On top of the team record, Nikita Kucherov did more impressive things.
The man who is likely going to win the Hart and Art Ross got his 75th assist of the season, becoming the first player to hit the mark since Henrik Sedin in 2010-11.
With his goal and assist on Saturday, Kucherov is just two points shy of Vincent Lecavalier’s franchise record of 108 points.
Kucherov is going to smash that.
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck