Though Steven Stamkos was held off the scoresheet in the Nashville Predators’ 4-1 road loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, he has looked more like his old self recently.
Going into the Predators’ game at the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, Stamkos has 10 goals and five assists in his last 11 games.
The 35-year-old had managed only eight goals and three assists in his first 29 contests this season.
Stamkos had 27 goals last season, his first with Nashville after spending his first 16 campaigns with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Stamkos’ hot streak included his 600th career goal, which came in Wednesday night’s 4-2 road win over the Vegas Golden Knights. The milestone came on his signature one-time slap shot from the left circle on the power play.
“I haven’t scored a ton of those this year, but I guess if it was going to be No. 600, it was kind of like I’ve scored a lot of other ones,” Stamkos said. “Awesome to do it in a win like this. … That’s how you envision doing something special like that. Really cool to have the guys come on the ice and share that moment.”
But the Predators were held in check in their 4-1 loss at Seattle on New Year’s night.
“We had a lot of passengers (Thursday),” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said after the game. “The schedule got us a little bit, but for us, they were a little bit more desperate, which is sort of unacceptable this time of year.”
It was the Predators’ second loss in their last seven games (5-2-0).
Erik Haula will represent his country at the Winter Olympics in Italy next month. He was named to Finland’s team on Friday. He joins Nashville teammates goaltender Juuse Saros (Finland), Filip Forsberg (Sweden) and captain and defenseman Roman Josi (Switzerland).
The Flames have also been burning things up by winning five of their last six and are coming off a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on home ice Wednesday.
Captain Mikael Backlund scored for Calgary to extend his point streak to six games (five goals, four assists). Connor Zary had a goal and an assist and Jonathan Huberdeau, defenseman Rasmus Andersson and Yegor Sharangovich also scored.
The Flames are also 10-1-1 in their last 12 on home ice.
“We just been sticking to our team game,” Backlund said. “It was some dark days earlier in the year with a tough stretch, but the boys have been digging in and kept believing and just been working hard and staying focused on what’s ahead and not losing sight of what we want to achieve here.”
Backlund, 36, has 10 goals and 25 points in 40 games.
“Best I’ve seen him play,” Andersson said of Backlund. “He’s dragging the team into the fight, and it’s every night. He’s been unbelievable lately, and really since game 10 this year, I think he’s been one of our best players. … He’s like fine wine, right? You know, older he gets, the better he gets.”
Andersson was also named to the Swedish team. Weegar is on the injury replacement list for Team Canada.
–Field Level Media
