Burns: 3 Things we learned from making history

Tampa Bay Lightning fans will remember Monday's game against Arizona for the records and achievements the Bolts accomplished.
They probably won't recall too much about the action on the ice, which, let's face it, was a bit ho-hum for long stretches.
But none of that matters.

The Lightning are guaranteed to finish with the most points in the NHL's regular season following their 4-1 victory over the Coyotes, the Bolts' fifth-consecutive win. Tampa Bay picked up its 56th win and moved to 116 points on the season. The Lightning clinched the Atlantic Division for the second-consecutive season and fourth time in franchise history. The Bolts will finish as the top regular season team in the East for a second year in a row and third time overall.
And, the Lightning made more history Monday night by capturing the franchise's first ever Presidents' Trophy.
Oh, don't forget about Steven Stamkos, who scored his 384th career goal to become the all-time leader in Lightning history for goals, passing friend and former teammate Vincent Lecavalier.
Monday's Tampa Bay-Arizona game had plenty of memorable moments.
Just not that many from the actual action on the ice.

1. STAMKOS BECOMES TBL'S GREATEST GOAL SCORER
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said he ran into Vincent Lecavalier Sunday night while eating dinner.
The chance encounter was an omen of what was to come the following day against Arizona.
Stamkos became the franchise leader for goals, netting No. 384 for his career in the first period with the Lightning trailing 1-0 to pass Lecavalier's 383-goal total that stood as the Lightning goal benchmark for nearly six seasons.
Stamkos has scored a number of different ways throughout his career. A tip-in off of a shot from the point is probably not how he imaged No. 384 in his mind, however.
"(Fox Sports Sun television host) Paul Kennedy reminded me that's how I scored my first NHL goal," Stamkos said, smiling. "Kind of funny how this one is a tip-in as well, but I'll take them any way I can get them. When you get 384, there's going to be a lot of different ways. Hopefully a lot more to come and just happy to do it in a game that meant a lot to this franchise."
After Stamkos broke the record and during a stoppage in play, Lightning Vision played a video tribute to Stamkos' goal-scoring prowess while the AMALIE Arena crowd gave him a lengthy standing ovation. Stamkos said he wasn't feeling too emotional about the moment until seeing and hearing the fans' reaction.
"It was pretty special," he said. "I didn't know how it was going to happen or how I was going to feel, but there was definitely some emotions, especially when we had the TV timeout there and the crowd was going crazy. It was pretty amazing to see how they reacted, how my teammates reacted. I was very honored and humbled to be a part of history like that, especially with some of the guys that I was lucky enough to play with in the past and to be up there with them. Definitely glad it happened in a win in a game like today where so many special things happen."
Stamkos reached 384 goals in 737 games played, 300 fewer than it took Lecavalier to get to 383. Martin St. Louis got to 365 goals in 972 games played. Stamkos has certainly been the most opportunistic goal scorer the Lightning have ever seen
Now he's the most prolific too.
"The guys that are number two and three on that (goal) list are in the rafters, so that's where he is heading," Victor Hedman summed up succinctly.

2. TROPHIES AND BANNERS
The Lightning will have to clear out some room in the trophy case and rearrange the banners in the rafters following the victory over the Coyotes.
The Bolts hope the awards garnered Monday are just a precursor to more important ones to follow.
Tampa Bay won its first-ever Presidents' Trophy and, at 73 games, needed the second-fewest games in NHL history to do so. Only the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings clinched the Presidents' Trophy faster at 71 games.
The Lightning are still chasing that same Red Wings squad for most victories in a season in League history. The 95-96 Wings finished with 62 wins. The Bolts have 56 with nine more regular season games remaining.
"Trophies are hard to win. They truly are," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "I think when you win one, you should be damn proud of it. When you think of the National Hockey League, you see it every June that the Stanley Cup is raised over somebody's head. There are 82 games before you get to that point, and I know there's a lot of teams in this league that haven't won that trophy. I think it's something you should embrace and enjoy and something where you will always look back and say that the 18-19 season we got the most points in the regular season. We did it fairly early and it should be exciting for our guys. In our organization, it's never been done. I look at it as a great accomplishment and a reward to our players and our fans for an unbelievable regular season. In saying that, does that predict future success? It does not. There are two entirely different seasons. In order to have an opportunity to win the Stanley Cup, you have to make the playoffs and that's what we've done and we're really excited about that."
The Lightning also claimed the Atlantic Division title and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs. The Bolts will have home-ice advantage throughout the postseason, which is probably the most important development from Monday's proceedings because it'll help the team reach what is ultimately its main goal:
Winning the Stanley Cup
"At the end of the day, a great regular season will be remembered somewhat, but we want to be remembered for what happens in the playoffs," Bolts blueliner Ryan McDonagh said. "We've set ourselves up for a great opportunity here, and we've got to get through these last nine games hopefully healthy and playing on all cylinders and really just focused and determined and ready to stand to any challenge."
The Lightning have answered every challenge presented to them so far this regular season.
And now they have the hardware to prove it.

3. THE GAME-WINNER
Other than Stamkos' record-breaking goal in the opening period, the first 40 minutes were pretty non-descript from both sides. The Lightning were a bit off their game, not playing poorly but not connecting passes and creating scoring chances like we've seen from the squad of late.
Arizona certainly had a lot to do with that. The Coyotes were active with their sticks in breaking up Lightning plays before they could get uncorked. They defended tightly and forechecked aggressively and had the Bolts playing a bit on their heels.
Arizona, in fact, was quite pleased with its effort Monday night despite the loss and despite dropping two crucial points in its playoff chase.
"It was probably one of the best games we've ever played, easily," Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said from the losing locker room.
Just one moment of brilliance from the Lightning, however, was enough to upend the Coyotes' upset plans.
In the opening minute of the third period, a strong shift by the Anthony Cirelli line buried the puck in the Arizona zone. The Bolts cycled the puck down low, Alex Killorn firing a shot from the right circle before Cirelli, off balance with a defender draped all over his back, backhanded the rebound across the crease for a pinching Hedman to one-time past Arizona goalie Darcy Kuemper.
"I think it was Tony and Killer and them had some good pressure," Hedman said. "Pucks were thrown at the net and Tony made a great play across the seam, and I was able to get a little touch on it.
"It was enough."
Hedman's go-ahead goal would prove to be enough as the Lightning limited Arizona's scoring opportunities throughout the game and Andrei Vasilevskiy was there to bail them out when the action broke down in front.
Cirelli iced the game with his empty-net goal with 45 seconds remaining. Yanni Gourde added another empty-netter - his second in the last two games - to reach 20 goals on the season.
And then, once the final horn sounded, the Lightning celebrated, if only for a few moments.
After all, there's still more work to be done on the 2018-19 season.