Stamkos Scores Four Goals to Lead Preds to Victory Over Blues

Steven Stamkos had himself a night.

The Nashville winger scored four goals to lead the Predators to a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena. The result gives the Preds wins in six of their last eight outings, and the most recent iteration was perhaps the most convincing of all.

Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly and Michael Bunting also tallied on the evening, and Juuse Saros made 24 saves in net, but Stamkos was the story - and rightfully so.

“It's one of those nights,” Stamkos grinned. “You can never expect to come in and score four goals, but just try to build off last game. I thought our team had a great game, and myself, personally, felt good. It didn't show up in the scoresheet, but felt really good with where the game was trending, and just great to be part of that win where we put together some quality games after a quality game. So, that's been something we've been trying to accomplish and thought we did that tonight.”

“I think when you play with his caliber and his pedigree, when the pucks are falling around, which it has been of late, good things are going to happen,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said of Stamkos. “And he got a little energy from it, and he just took off. He's been playing like that for pretty much the last little stretch of games, which is fun to see, and it's fun that it’s going in. Then [it] speaks volumes of our team, the unselfishness, even to the young guys, they all wanted to try to find a way to get him the puck, which is pretty cool for me.”

The first tally of the night from No. 91 came when he took a feed from Matthew Wood and buried his own rebound past Jordan Binnington. Stamkos potted another less than three minutes later in the slot to send Nashville into the first intermission with a 2-0 advantage.

St. Louis got on the board early in the second stanza, but then the Preds went back to work. First, O’Reilly beat Binnington five-hole on a feed from Evangelista, and just over three minutes later, Evangelista found Forsberg streaking to the net, and the winger finished off a slick move in tight to put the Predators up by three.

Then, less than 30 seconds later as Stamkos was searching for a teammate, his feed in front caromed in off a Blues defender and over the line for his 15th career hat trick and second as a member of the Preds. And less than four minutes after that - and after St. Louis added their second - Stamkos collected a loose puck in front and slid it home to become just the fourth player in Predators franchise history to record four goals in a single game.

“It's impressive,” O’Reilly smiled of Stamkos. “It's fun to watch...all just working man's goals, going to the hard areas. Obviously, we all know how incredible a goal-scorer is, but going to the net, going to the right areas, winning battles in front, and a big reason why we won tonight.”

“It is pretty cool,” Josi said of Stamkos. “It’s special to score four, but he's got, like, more than 590 probably, in his career. So, it's just pretty cool to be part of what he's done in his career and keeps finding ways to score goals. It's pretty impressive.”

Michael Bunting added one more on the power play in the final frame for good measure, and Nashville cruised to a 7-2 final that saw Evangelista finish the night with three assists and arguably his best effort of the season as well.

“I felt like I had maybe the best summer of my life training-wise," Evangelista said. “I switched a bunch of stuff up, changed my stride up a little. I changed the gym that I went to, changed the diet, just in hopes of having a really good year. I feel like the work that I put in during the summer is kind of paying off now. [My] body feels good…just feel confident on the ice and in my body. It’s been a pretty solid start.”

But the night ultimately belonged to Stamkos and an effort that will always be remembered in Predators franchise history. And perhaps even more impressive? At the start of November, he had one goal on the season. Just over a month later, he leads his club with 12 tallies.

As Evangelista told Stamkos postgame, hacing a front row seat to an outing like this, “It’s just really cool to be a part of.”

“As an athlete, no matter where you are, what stage you are in your career, you're always battling some tough times and confidence, but you want to ride the high as long as you can,” Stamkos reflected. “Obviously, like I said last game or the last few games, I feel like the game has been trending, our whole team has been trending [positively], so it's nice when you're helping your team win. It feels that much better. But at this stage of my career, you just fall back on the preparation that you do. I mean, yeah, would it be nice to feel like you're 25 every night again? Of course, but you have to put in a little different type of work. And you’ve got to be the same person whether you're scoring or you're not scoring, and that's what I try to be. And it's nice when you get rewarded for those efforts that you put in behind the scenes.”

“It's remarkable,” Brunette said of Stamkos and his turnaround from the start of the season. “I’ve played with a lot of great players, and we've all gone through slumps and not feeling we're producing at our level. And the way he’s approached every day is actually really remarkable… It hasn't been easy for him, because he's a proud guy. He's a Hall of Famer, but he didn't bring anybody down. He tried to lift everybody else around him. So, when you see nights like tonight, it kind of touches your heart a little bit, because I understand how hard that is. Our young guys are very, very lucky to watch that and see that and hopefully understand that. So, when they go through some things, how do they handle themself? And he's handled himself like an all-timer.”

Notes:

Nashville’s lineup remained unchanged on Thursday with 11 forwards and seven defensemen dressed. Tyson Jost was the lone healthy scratch for the Preds.

Per NHL PR, Steven Stamkos scored his 15th career hat trick and passed Sidney Crosby (14) for the third most among active players behind Alex Ovechkin (33) and David Pastrnak (19).

Stamkos scored his second hat trick with Nashville and moved into a tie for the fourth most in franchise history, behind only Filip Forsberg (10), Steve Sullivan (4) and Viktor Arvidsson (3).

Stamkos (4-0—4) matched the franchise record for most goals in a game, a feat only three others have achieved: Filip Forsberg (Nov. 30, 2021), Rocco Grimaldi (March 15, 2021) and Eric Nystrom (Jan. 24, 2014).

Stamkos became the fifth active player to post multiple four-goal games, joining Alex Ovechkin (4x), Anze Kopitar (2x), Nathan MacKinnon (2x) and Tage Thompson (2x).

With a sweep of their two-game homestand, the Predators will now hit the road to face both Colorado and St. Louis once again on Saturday and Monday, respectively.