Stamkos Passes Robitaille for Fifth-Most Power-Play Goals Ever as Predators Beat Blues 3-1

Some goals are worth more than the one they put on the board. Steven Stamkos scored one of those on Saturday afternoon in Nashville, a power-play strike that did two jobs at once: it dragged the Predators level against the St. Louis Blues, and it moved him past Luc Robitaille into fifth place on the NHL's all-time power-play goals list. The goal itself was pure Stamkos. St. Louis had taken the lead at 13:07 of the first period, Jimmy Snuggerud one-timing a Philip Broberg feed past Juuse Saros on the power play for his ninth of the season. Three minutes later the Blues were on the wrong end of the same situation. Broberg tried to clear the puck out of danger and it wound up on Stamkos' stick with Joel Hofer out of position and the net wide open. He did not miss. It was his tenth goal of the season, the most on the Predators, and the 248th power-play goal of his career, one more than Robitaille managed in his Hall of Fame career. The game stayed tight from there, which is how most of Nashville's recent wins have gone. Ross Colton broke the 1-1 tie at 9:02 of the second period, snapping a Jack Drury pass from the slot past a screened Hofer for his fifth of the season. That was the winner, though the Blues made the Predators work for it until the final minutes. Nick Perbix settled it with an empty-net goal with 1:29 left, his second of the season, with Stamkos picking up the assist to complete a goal-and-an-assist afternoon. There was a milestone hiding in the box score, too. Captain Roman Josi assisted on both the Stamkos and Colton goals, and those two points left him one shy of 800 for his career. When he gets there, he will be the first Swiss player, and only the fifth defenceman born outside North America, to reach the mark. He already leads the Predators with 18 assists this season, and he is playing like a man who knows the record book is waiting. Saros, meanwhile, made 25 saves for his 12th career victory against the Blues, a team he has quietly owned over the years. Hofer stopped 26 at the other end, but St. Louis could not find a second goal, and the Blues left Nashville having lost three straight and having finished a four-game road trip at 1-2-1. The win was Nashville's fourth in a row, and the Predators have now taken points in seven of their last eight games. At 8-4-5, they sit third in the Central Division, and there is a steadiness to them right now that was missing earlier in the season. They beat these same Blues 5-2 back on October 17, and Saturday was the second of four meetings between the Central Division rivals this year. St. Louis, at 7-8-2, heads home to face Chicago on Tuesday with questions to answer. The road has not been kind to them: they are 3-6-1 away from home, and the third period on Saturday was the latest reminder that they struggle to chase games late. Nashville moves on to Los Angeles on Tuesday, and Stamkos moves on to the next name on the list. Only four players in the history of the league have scored more power-play goals than him now, and the way he is shooting the puck, that list will keep getting shorter.