Nashville, Tennessee — steven stamkos Rediscovered his scoring touch with four goals on Thursday night, and it’s no coincidence that Nashville Predators‘The trajectory is suddenly pointing upwards.
After a slow start to the season, Stamkos now has eight goals in his last eight contests, which coincides with the Predators going 6-2. win 7-2 Above st louis blues,
“I have to remember what I had for breakfast. When you get to my age sometimes you forget,” said the 35-year-old, who started the season with four goals in his first 22 games. “Sometimes you feel like your legs are light and tonight, when you score a run at the beginning of the game, I think that’s what you feel. And it was good to contribute to a big win for our group.”
The four-goal outing was the second of Stamkos’ 18-year career. He had earlier scored four times in a 7–4 win edmonton On December 14, 2023, while with tampa bay lightningAnd he became the fourth Predators player to score four times filip forsberg and Rocco Grimaldi (both in 2021) and Eric Nystrom (2014).
Stamkos opened the scoring with 8:22 to go by batting in his own rebound on a 2-on-1 break. He converted a front-after rebound less than three minutes later to make it 2-0. Jordan Binnington Blocked 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 bounced off the skate of a Blues defenseman. Justin Faulk 12:06 to 2nd period. And his fourth goal made it 6-2 and came 3:27 later, when Josi’s shot deflected off Stamkos’ stick in front, from where he backhanded it past Binnington.
It was the 102nd multigoal game of his career, third most among active players Alex Ovechkin (181) and Sidney Crosby (110). And he became the first player to score a four-goal game at the age of 35 or older. Ange Kopitar In 2023.
Stamkos, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft, is also on pace to become the 22nd player to reach 600 goals. Stamkos now has 594, leaving him seven short of tying 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 have been in it,” he said of the milestone.
What mattered more was victory.
In his second season in Nashville, Stamkos was one of the Predators’ 2024 offseason moves that failed with the team missing the playoffs the previous season. Nashville (12-14-4) got off to a slow start this season, with its recent performance pushing the team closer to contention.
Stamkos said, “In terms of the success we’ve had as a team, it didn’t work out the way we wanted. But we’re just moving forward.” “I think we’re playing some of the hockey that people probably expected us to play, and expected of ourselves. And we want to continue to do that.”
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
