Catching up with Tampa Bay Lightning's first All-Star -- Brian Bradley

TAMPA, Fla. -- The awestruck first-time All-Star wandered throughout Montreal Forum, his professional reality meeting boyhood fantasy. Brian Bradley was no longer a dreamer. He belonged.

This was February 1993, and the Tampa Bay Lightning center was prepared to make history. Bradley gazed at the famous faces near him, his presence in the 44th NHL All-Star Game proof of his growth as his franchise's first entrant in the event.

There was Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman and Brett Hull. There was reminder after reminder about the privilege of calling himself an All-Star, while representing the Lightning in their inaugural season, the title to stay with the standout talent throughout his playing career and beyond.

"I don't think I went into the season back then as, 'Hey, I'm hoping to make the All-Star Game,'" Bradley said Tuesday. "I think I wanted to go in there and prove myself and be a consistent player in the NHL. Things went well.

"You play your first game in the NHL, you score your first goal in the NHL, you go to your first All-Star Game -- those are things you never forget."

Almost 22 years later, Bradley recalls the sensation that came with being considered one of the NHL's best. He has advice for the Lightning's newest all-star selections, centers Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson, after they were announced Saturday.

Savor. Enjoy. Build for more.

"People still talk about it," said Bradley, who played for the Lightning from 1992 to 1998 before retiring following a 14-year NHL career. "They refer to me as the first All-Star, the leading scorer for the first five or six years of the franchise's history. I get referred to that a lot. And you know what? I'm proud of it, because the Tampa Bay Lightning have been great to me. And I'm always happy to be involved with the Lightning organization. I love it. I think it's great."

All-Star Games in all leagues, from the NHL to the NBA and elsewhere, mean different things to the participants based on perspective. The more players become familiar with those whirlwind hours, the thousands of screaming fans and all those cameras, the weaker the tingle. The more fresh the feeling, the more likely each moment lived will remain close to heart.

Stamkos and Johnson, in many ways, live at opposite ends of that spectrum. Stamkos, with 41 points entering play Tuesday, is a bonafide superstar, someone with a captaincy, two previous All-Star Game appearances and two Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophies to his name. Johnson, meanwhile, still has a boy-like flair to his ice presence. He's someone who has thrived in his first two full seasons in the NHL and leads the Lightning with 46 points this campaign to clinch his first All-Star Game berth.

More binds them than a shared logo, though. With their selection as two of the 42 players named to the All-Star Game on Jan. 25 at Nationwide Arena, they have earned a chance to glance back, even if it's for a brief moment, to recall when they were awestruck by watching the game's greats from afar.

Soon, they will be All-Stars. Long before, they were distant dreamers.

Bradley knows the transformation well. Memories of living his first All-Star Game are timeless, and though he felt more at ease in the second of his two career All-Star Game appearances in 1994, he remains shaped by that sensation of walking within Montreal Forum's star-kissed walls those many years ago. He grew as a professional that day, just as Stamkos and Johnson continue to do so.

"Steven Stamkos is going to be at the All-Star Game every year," Bradley said. "That's just the way it is. He's a player like a Stevie Yzerman. He's like a Brett Hull. The fans want to watch Steven Stamkos shoot the puck and score. There aren't many guys who can play like that."

And Johnson?

"He has progressed and developed wherever he has been," Bradley said. "You look at his stats in the American Hockey League, in the junior leagues, he has always put up numbers. He's off to a great start this year. I think the team is very happy with the way Tyler Johnson has played. I think he has been terrific. Very consistent."

Bradley reached out to Johnson after the All-Star rosters were made official Saturday night. Many considered Stamkos to be a lock for an invite, but there were questions about whether Johnson, young at age 24 and not as widely known throughout the NHL as No. 91, would receive enough recognition to earn national validation for his strong start.

Turns out, those doubts were misplaced. Bradley was pleased.

"Congratulations," Bradley recalls telling Johnson. "It was well-deserved. You deserve to be there, Tyler."

"It's a whirlwind experience your first time," Bradley said Tuesday. "You're really humbled. He'll see all these different players that he has been watching on TV for a few years, and he's going to play with them. He's only in his second full year. There are guys that have been there 10, 12 years in the NHL that he has been watching since he was probably 15 years old. I think it's a shock and awe your first time when you go there and you get to see all the names."

Surprise? Suspense? So be it, as long as the timeless tingle remains.

You can follow Andrew Astleford on Twitter @aastleford or email him at aastleford@gmail.com.