NASHVILLE — Steven Stamkos rediscovered his scoring touch with a four-goal outing Thursday night, and it’s no coincidence that the Nashville Predators’ trajectory is suddenly pointing up, too.
After a slow start to the season, Stamkos now has eight goals in his past eight outings, which coincides with the Predators going 6-2 over a stretch that includes Thursday’s 7-2 win over the St. Louis Blues at Bridgestone Arena.
“I’m going to have to remember what I ate for breakfast. When you get to my age sometimes you forget,” said the 35-year-old center from Canada, who opened the season with four goals in his first 22 games. “Sometimes you feel the legs are feeling light, and tonight, when you score one early in the game, I think that’s the feeling you have. And it was nice to contribute in a big win for our group.”
The four-goal outing was the second of Stamkos’ 18-year NHL career. He previously scored four times in 7-4 road win against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 14, 2023, while with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And he became just the fourth player in Predators history to score four times, joining Filip Forsberg and Rocco Grimaldi, who did so in 2021, and Eric Nystrom (2014).
Stamkos opened the scoring 8:22 into the game against the Blues by batting in his own rebound on a 2-on-1 break. He made it 2-0 less than three minutes later by converting another rebound in front after Jordan Binnington stopped Roman Josi’s initial shot from the blue line.
He then completed his 15th career hat trick with a shot from the high slot that deflected in off the skate of Blues defenseman Justin Faulk 12:06 into the second period. And his fourth goal made it 6-2 and came 3:27 later, when Josi’s shot deflected onto Stamkos’ stick in front, from where he backhanded it in behind Binnington.
The No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft is also closing in on becoming the 22nd player in NHL history to reach the 600-goal plateau. Stamkos now has 594 career goals, leaving him seven short of matching Jari Kurri.
“It’s a little surreal, to be honest, when you look at the history of this league and how many great players there’s been,” he said of the milestone.
What mattered more was the win.
Now in his second season in Nashville, Stamkos was part of the Predators’ major spending spree in the summer of 2024 that failed to pan out with the team missing the playoffs last season. Nashville followed by getting off to a slow start to this season before its recent run inching the team closer into contention at 12-14-4 but still at the bottom of the Central Division in the Western Conference with 28 points
The Blues, 11-14-7, are just one point and one spot ahead of Nashville in the eight-team division.
“It hasn’t quite worked out the way that we wanted to in terms of the success we’ve had as a team, but we’re rolling right now,” Stamkos said. “I think we’re playing some hockey that people probably expected us to play and expected of ourselves, and we want to keep that going.”