It was a night to remember for Steven Stamkos as he scored four goals, tying a franchise record for goals in a game, powering the Nashville Predators to a second straight win over the St. Louis Blues, 7-2, on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena. 

It was the second time a Predators player scored a hat trick, as Matthew Wood had three in a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Nov. 10. The last time a Predators player had four goals in a game was by Filip Forsberg in a 6-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 30, 2021. 

"It's one of those nights, but you can never expect to come in a game and score four goals," Stamkos said. "We just tried to build off of last game and I thought our team had a great game...It just felt great to be a part of that win where we put together a quality game after a quality game."

It was the most goals the Predators have scored in a game since a 7-6 overtime win over the New York Islanders on April 8, 2025. 

Here a three take aways from the Predators blowout win over the Blues. 

Stammer hammer strikes 

There have been rumors all season about Stamkos leaving the Predators due to the team's lack of success, the place in his career and lack of production. In the first month of play, Stamkos had four points in 17 games. 

However, over the last eight games, he has re-found his mojo. Stamkos has 10 points in his last eight games and 15 points in 30 games this season. The recent push was highlighted by four goals from the veteran forward against the Blues.

It was Stamkos' 102nd multi-goal game, 15th career hat trick and just the second time he's scored more than four in a game. It was also just the fourth time in franchise history that a Predators player had scored four goals in a game. 

"As an athlete, no matter what stage you are in your career, you're always battling some tough times and confidence, but you want to ride the high's as long as you can," Stamkos said. "The last few games, it feels like we've been trending, so it's nice when you're helping your team win." 

On the first goal, Stamkos caught his own rebound, on a 2-on-1 with Matthew Wood, and knocked it out of the air into the net. The second conversion came less than three minutes later as he put away another rebound, this time off a shot from Roman Josi. 

He tacked on two more goals in the second period, throwing the puck on net, and it bounced off Justin Faulk for the hat-trick goal. The conversion game just 25 seconds after Filip Forsberg scored to make it 4-1. 

Stamkos' luck in front of the net continued as he picked up a shot from Josi and backhanded it into the net for his fourth goal of the night. 

"Ever since he (Stamkos)got here, it feels like there's all these records set, all the time after games," Josi said.
"You talk about milestones for each individual, but with him, we're talking about all-time milestones all the time. It's just fun to see him do it here. 
He's done it his whole career. 509 goals is an insane number."

Young guys get point boost

With Stamkos scoring four goals, those who played a supporting role had solid nights as well. In this case, the majority of those players were young guys.

Luke Evangelista had three points, and Fedor Svechkov and Matthew Wood had two points each. 

Evangelista had assists on Ryan O'Reilly's, Filip Forsberg's and Michael Bunting's goals for his sixth multi-point game of the season and his fourth three-point game of his career. He has 23 points on the year.

"That word consistency is something that every player tries to find," Evangelista said. "I've talked about last year, and that was an area where I struggled. I was having a good game, two games, three games together, and then maybe one or two bad ones.

"This year it's  just finding that confidence, that consistency and going into every game feeling like you can make an impact." 

Wood assisted on two of Stamkos' goals and now has 14 points on the year.

The most significant gain was for Svechkov, who has struggled to get going all season. He had secondary assists on Stamkos' first two goals, and now has four points in his last five games and seven points on the year. 

"You're hoping your young players early on take a step they didn't and say, a guy likes Svech (Svechkov), it took him a while to get going, now we're starting to see it," Brunette said. 

Svechkov and Wood also had a plus/minus of +4 on the night, while Evangelista had a plus/minus of +2. 

Preds heating up 

Head coach Andrew Brunette said he felt like the team was starting to round a corner following Tuesday's 4-3 shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche and that the battle-tested effort was beginning to pay off. 

Nashville has now won six of its last eight, the most games they've won in a stretch since they won eight of nine from Jan. 3 to Jan. 23 last season. 

Ryan O'Reilly, who has led the Predators in scoring this season, now has five points in five games and Filip Forsberg has four points in his last three games. Evangelista has a whopping 13 points in his last nine games.

The wins this week bode well for the Predators, who will face the Avalanche again on Saturday in Denver and the Blues again on Monday in St. Louis. 

"We're believing," Brunette said. "The path hasn't been easy. We've gone through some stuff together and we've hung in there...Everybody's all in. We've never been tighter and we haven't deviated from our game plan." 

Up next: Nashville Predators (12-14-4, 8th in Central) at Colorado Avalanche on (21-2-7, 1st in Central) on Saturday at 8 p.m. CST at Ball Arena.