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.