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TAMPA, Fla. -- Jay Feaster let it be known late last summer that he expected Tampa Bay center Vincent Lecavalier to score 50 goals this season.

Talented as Lecavalier is, that seemed like a lot to count on from a guy who had not gotten more than 35 in any of his previous seven NHL seasons.

Turns out, though, that Feaster, the Lightning's general manager, might have been underestimating him a bit. Lecavalier enters Tampa Bay's game against the Penguins today at 5:08 p.m. at the St. Pete Times Forum with a league-high 40 goals, which puts him on pace to finish with 52.

That makes him the front-runner to receive the Maurice Richard Trophy, which goes to the NHL's top goal-scorer. Quite a feat, to be sure, although one Lecavalier seems to have kept in perspective.

"If it happens, it happens," he said. "It would be great, but my main goal is obviously for Tampa to win."

While there wasn't much precedent for Lecavalier's goal production, it hasn't exactly triggered a tsunami of disbelief inside the industry.

"I'm not surprised," Penguins center Sidney Crosby said. "He's a great player. He's playing with a guy like [Martin] St. Louis, who's a great playmaker and can score, too."

Going into the games last night, Lecavalier and St. Louis were tied for second place in the NHL scoring race with 83 points, 13 behind Crosby.

"Playing with Marty St. Louis, it just kind of makes things so much easier," Lecavalier said. "He's such a determined player and he's very demanding of his linemates and his teammates, and I think I started getting a little more consistent. We've really been pushing each other, and it's been working very well."

St. Louis acknowledged after the Lightning's workout in suburban Brandon yesterday that, "we really feed off one another," but suggested Lecavalier's outburst should not have caught anyone off-guard.

"It's not like this is the first year that he's scored goals," St. Louis said.

He and Lecavalier form not only the most lethal 1-2 combination in the league, but one of the most visually improbable. St. Louis is 5 feet 9, 185 pounds, Lecavalier 6 feet 4, 223.

St. Louis' greatest asset likely is his speed; Lecavalier, while a good skater, is particularly difficult to contain because he has learned to use his reach and large frame to full advantage.

"He's got a big body, and he's not afraid to use it," Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi said. "Like Joe Thornton [of San Jose]."

Thornton, the first player drafted in 1997, was honored as the NHL's Most Valuable Player last season. Tampa Bay claimed Lecavalier with the No. 1 pick a year later and, while he probably won't succeed Thornton as the Hart Trophy winner, coach John Tortorella believes his offensive production reflects the maturity Lecavalier has gained during his time in the league.

They had what Tortorella described as "a pretty frank conversation" at the beginning of the season, with one of the four key points they discussed being the need for Lecavalier to consistently keep his game at its highest level.

"In the past couple of years, as he's grown and matured, he's become a great player at certain times of the season, a couple of games here, a couple of games there," Tortorella said. "He's been a good player following some games. Two great games, maybe five games when he's decent and good.

"We wanted to try to step up that maturity and that responsibility of being a gamebreaker more consistently, and he has accepted that."

That might not bode well for the Penguins' defense pairing of Mark Eaton and Sergei Gonchar, who routinely face opponents' most dangerous forwards. They figure to have the daunting task of performing damage-control against Lecavalier and St. Louis today.

"You just try, the same as with any world-class player, to limit their time and space," Eaton said. "Realize they're good players, but don't respect them too much [so that] you back off and give them a lot of time to make the plays they like to make. "You just try to be in their face, have a good stick near the puck and make it as hard on them as you possibly can."

Seems only fair, since that's what Lecavalier and St. Louis do that to other teams so often. And, as good as they have been, Tortorella seems convinced that Lecavalier will get even better.

"It's not what I think or what you think [that matters]," he said. "He thinks he can. I think he believes he can bring another level to his game."

Kind of like he is doing now.