Vinny

Breakout

By MARTIN FENNELLY

Published: Apr 10, 2007

It isn't easy.

The first man to do it, 62 years ago, never did it again. And it took
16 years before anyone caught him. Only 87 men have done it in the
history of the National Hockey League.

Fifty.

The number 50 and hockey go together because of the man who started it,
fearsome Montreal Canadiens gunner Maurice "Rocket" Richard, who in
1945 scored his 50th goal in the final game of a 50-game season.

Fifty.

It matters so much that the annual NHL goal-scoring champion is handed
a trophy named for Rocket, who died in 2000. He was given a state
funeral in Quebec. More than 115,000 honored his greatness by passing
before him as he lay in state at Montreal's Molson Centre.

One of them was 20-year-old Vincent Lecavalier.

A Special Season

Before we get to the Stanley Cup playoffs, Lightning and Devils, here's
to one hell of a season by Vinny Lecavalier.

He scored 50 goals, hockey's magic number, plus two, to win Rocket's
trophy. That wasn't the whole story. Nor were his 108 points. Vinny was
the best skater in the NHL this season. At least his coach thinks so.
Yes, the same coach who tough-loved him all those years.

"It's been a Vinny season," John Tortorella said.

It's a hell of a thing, scoring 50 goals. It takes watching a guy score
that many times, night in, night out, again and again, to realize it.

"He's in the club," said Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, who had five
50-goal seasons, one of which became a then record-shattering 76-goal
season. Esposito, as Lightning GM, drafted Vinny first in 1998. He had
waited on this season. Who hadn't?

"This is the one," Esposito said. "Now he knows he can do it. It
doesn't matter what we think. It's what Vinny thinks. And now he
knows."

After being good, sometimes very good, but never good enough, he was
the Vinny people demanded. He didn't prove them wrong. Turns out they
were right to expect 50 goals, to insist on greatness.

Turns out Vinny insisted on it, too.

That's where he proved people wrong.

He proved he was that driven, that demanding.

"I'm proud of that," Vinny said.

It was more than the 52 goals. He got up on offense, he got back on
defense. He kept skating, moving, searching for something more, which
led to remarkable consistency. Vinny Lecavalier was held without a
point in only 15 games, only once in consecutive games.

Even so, 50 goals surprised him.

"I didn't think it was possible," he said.

But possible became probable became inevitable.

Maybe being on the trading block last offseason was fuel. Maybe it was
being teamed with Marty St. Louis.

Or maybe it was something as simple as maturity. At least Lightning
captain Tim Taylor thinks so.

"Vinny just grew into greatness."
Is This Just The Start?

Lecavalier talks about how Marty pushes him. But here's what St. Louis,
who finished with 102 points, points out:

"Vinny pushes me right back."

That's Vinny in this Vinny season, pushing the whole way.

Maybe it's just the beginning.

"Watching the mental toughness he brings, I think he thinks there's
more there," Tortorella said. "He may not come out and say 'I want to
score 60' or whatever, but I believe he thinks there's more there."

On with the playoffs. Vinny sometimes dominated in the Cup run. He
disappeared against Ottawa last season. This is this season.

"I have to keep doing it," he said. "The expectations are bigger."

But don't expect a playoff beard. Vinny turns 27 next week - just 27 -
and all his attempts at facial hair end in fuzz and laughter.

"I can't grow it," he said.

He has grown in nearly every other way.

"You have to want it," Vinny Lecavalier said. "Then you try and get
it."

Greatness doesn't find you. You find greatness.

That Vinny did.

Fifty times over.