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Tonight's game will pit last season's Rocket Richard winners against one another: Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos. So far Stamoks has taken the early lead in the category this season with eight goals over eight games and is only two games removed from his first hat trick of the season against the Thrashers on October 22. He also has seven assists for a 15 points total. To compare, Sid has six goals and five assists over the first nine games. Prior to being shutout against the Blues Saturday night, Sid had registered 10 points in five games.
Lightning goaltender Mike Smith is 4-0 so far this season, which no doubt looks good on paper, but if you look at some of his stats you'll see he's very much like Marc-Andre Fleury in that he benefits from having a strong offense. Tuesday's win over the Thrashers was the first game this season where Smith allowed less than three goals (two), as he's currently holding a 3.11 GAA. To compare, Brent Johnson is 4-0-1 with a .951 save percentage and 1.39 GAA and Fleury is 1-3 with a .859 save percentage and 3.25 GAA.
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