Lee Gets 40th Goal To Finish Season

After sitting on 39 goals for four games and two periods, Anders Lee admitted that something resembling doubt was starting to creep in as the final period of the Isles season got underway on Saturday.
Lee badly wanted to hit the 40-goal mark and he got it with less than a period to play in the season. He scored it in style, taking a pass from Mathew Barzal and roofing a backhander top shelf over Jared Coreau. Lee let out a roar as he skated to the corner.

"That was pretty incredible," Lee said. "The last two games Dougie has been putting me out every other shift. The guys have been feeding me the puck everywhere. I wouldn't' say doubt was creeping in there, but we were getting into our final shifts there, so to get it to go there was pretty incredible."

As much as he wanted it, his teammates wanted to take care of some unfinished business for him - and it was evident by the amount of high-fives and congratulations in the locker room after the game.
"Lee is one of our biggest character guys in the room," said Barzal, who tied the Isles rookie record for assists in a season (63) on Saturday. "As soon as he got it there it was almost a sigh of relief, we wanted to get it for him so bad. He made a great play there, a signature play there in the crease doing his thing."
Lee becomes the first Islander in 11 years to score 40 goals in a season, the first since Jason Blake achieved the feat in 2006-07. Lee's 40-goal campaign marked only the 29th time an Islander hit the mark in 46 years.
His success goes beyond Isles accolades. Over the past two seasons Lee has scored 74 goals, which is tied with Toronto's Auston Matthews for fifth in the NHL.

"That's a big number in today's game," Head Coach Doug Weight said. "Its a good thing, he's a good kid and a big piece of our room. Certainly a positive to go out on, I was happy for him. Very happy. 40 goals is something not a lot of people in this league can say they achieved."
He hasn't done it the easy way either, grinding around the crease, battling defensemen, swatting at rebounds and knocking pucks out of the air. Lee has paid the price for going to the net in the past, breaking his leg off an errant shot during the 2015-16 campaign.
Weight said there aren't too many comparable players to Lee, who scored 40 goals almost entirely within 15 feet of the net. He compared him to a post basketball player, using size and finesse to create offense and highlighted his willingness and fearlessness to go to the net. His teammates appreciate it, too.

"I don't think it matters how you do it. He's proven that he's one of the top goal scorers in the league," Barzal said. "His game, he works so hard on it in practice, you see him staying after working around the crease tipping pucks and getting them upstairs."
As for Lee, getting to 40 was his goal after a 34-goal season the year before. He knew it was going to be harder, that he'd get played tougher and tighter, but with some help from his teammates, he got it - just in the nick of time.
"It's an unbelievable thing," Lee said. "Things have gone my way this year around the net and to get to this point is awesome. You look at the guys that are giving me the puck and making those plays says a lot about our offensive power and what we can do."