Steven Stamkos had himself quite a trio of games, and the NHL has taken notice.
The Predators forward was named the League’s Second Star of the Week on Monday for the week ending March. 9
Stamkos was second among all NHL skaters with four goals and eight points over Nashville’s three victories with multiple points in each of those wins. He recorded a goal and two helpers, his second three-point effort of the season, in a 6-3 win in Boston last Tuesday, including his 600th career assist.
He became just the second player from the 2008 NHL Draft class to accomplish the feat, and his three-point outing was the105th of his career, the is the sixth-most by an active player behind Sidney Crosby (185), Alex Ovechkin (138), Connor McDavid (133), Evgeni Malkin (117) and Patrick Kane (110).
Thursday’s 5-3 triumph over Seattle brought about another pair of assists for Stamkos, and the exclamation point came Saturday night when he scored all three goals in Nashville’s 3-2 overtime victory against Chicago.
The first goal on Saturday for Stamkos was No. 574 of his career, good enough to pass Mike Bossy for sole possession of 23rd place in NHL history. Stamkos became the third active player with 100 multi-goal games, joining Alex Ovechkin (178 GP) and Sidney Crosby (103 GP).
He also recorded his 14th career hat trick, passing Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and John Tavares (all w/ 13) for sole possession of the third most among active players, behind Alex Ovechkin (32) and David Pastrnak (18).
“It was an unbelievable performance for him,” Preds forward Jonathan Marchessault said of Stamkos after Saturday’s game. “That's why he’s a special player who came here, and he was doing it the past 16 years and still doing it. So it's all in his honor. And we're definitely lucky to have him. I know how it is sometimes to get through adversity, and you just stick with it, and goal scores will always be goal scores, so good for him.”
“[I’m] happy for him,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said of Stamkos. “You know, I've said all year, the effort has always been there. It's been a hard year, and a lot of our veteran guys [felt] expectations that we talked a lot about… The effort was there, and it's nice to see him get rewarded. There hasn't been a whole lot of things that made us feel really good through the course of the season. To see a guy get a hat trick and pass Mike Bossy at home [in an] overtime win, I mean, those are moments in the game that you always remember. I'm really happy for him.”
