Lach, Stamkos play same game, Fischler says

Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler will write a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com this season. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," will share his knowledge, humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
This week, he compares one of the game's all-time greats to a superstar of today.

The common career denominator for
Elmer Lach
, a Montreal Canadiens center from the 1940s and early '50s, and Steven Stamkos, his counterpart from today's Tampa Bay Lightning, is injuries. More precisely, it's the manner in which each rebounded from serious injuries to continue his career.
After a successful rookie season, Lach sustained a dislocated shoulder, broken wrist and elbow injury after crashing into the boards during Montreal's 1941-42 opener and didn't play for the rest of the season. he also missed much of the 1946-47 season with a fractured skull. Stamkos missed 45 games during the 2013-14 season with a broken right leg. He was limited to one game during the Lightning's run to the 2016 Eastern Conference Final while recovering from a blood clot near his collarbone, and he was off to a fast start in 2016-17 before a serious injury to his right knee sidelined him for the final 65 games of the season.
As for their creative similarities, Lach displayed superior skating ability and perseverance, not to mention a knack for scoring clutch goals. He led the NHL in assists (54) and points (80) in 1944-45, then topped the League in points (61) in 1947-48. Stamkos broke into the NHL as an 18-year-old in 2008 and a year later led the NHL with 51 goals. He bettered that mark in 2011-12 with 60.
Lach and Stamkos each benefitted from high-quality linemates. Montreal coach Dick Irvin placed Lach between left wing
Toe Blake
and right wing
Maurice Richard
in 1943-44; the trio famously became known as "The Punch Line" and powered Montreal to the Stanley Cup in 1944.

Lach helped the Canadiens turn into a mid-1940s powerhouse. But midway through the 1946-47 season, he sustained a skull fracture after he was checked and hit his head on the ice. Doctors told him his hockey career was over, but Lach persevered and led the NHL in scoring in 1947-48.
Stamkos won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal-scorer twice in his first four seasons before breaking his leg on Nov. 11, 2013. He rebounded with 43 and 36 goals in the next two seasons. The knee injury that ended his 2016-17 season after 17 games didn't keep him from returning in 2017-18 with 86 points, including an NHL career-high 59 assists, in 78 games. He followed that with 57 points (26 goals, 31 assists) in Tampa Bay's first 49 games this season; on Dec. 11, he became the first player from the 2008 NHL Draft to reach 700 points despite missing 156 games during his career.
Lach capped his Hall of Fame career by scoring the overtime goal against the Boston Bruins that gave the Canadiens the Stanley Cup in 1953.
While Stamkos has yet to sip champagne from the Cup, he has been the offensive balance wheel of the Lightning, one of the NHL's most powerful teams, for most of the past decade.