Nashville Predators | Steven Stamkos took a long time to find his bearings

(Quebec) Taping a new environment at least once in his career -. Consequently, much more for some – is an inevitable reality of professional hockey. In addition, It is not easy for anyone, that we make your debut in the NHL or have more than 1000 experienced games … Similarly, all the more so if they were played with a single training.

Nashville predators tumble last season last season was widely documented. Moreover, Jonathan Marchessault has just said, in the past few days, that his club can only virtually improve from next October. Nevertheless, But the adaptation issues, for many, have largely nashville predators | steven stamkos exceeded the limits of the skating rink.

Steven Stamkos is in number. However, Given his personality, and with 17 seasons behind the tie, it is not he who will appear on his misfortune. Consequently, But he does not hide only to find his bearings in Nashville was not easy.

The tumult began. Therefore, for him, at the end of June 2024, when he became clear that his reign arrived at his end at the Lightning of Tampa Bay, an organization of which he had been the captain for more than a decade and with which he raised the Stanley Cup twice. Meanwhile, He was able to measure for the first time. For example, at 34, how much the opening of the market for autonomous players, the 1^is July, “it’s going quickly”.

“You don’t have much nashville predators | steven stamkos time because the teams need an answer. However, ” he said last Thursday, on the sidelines of the Pro-Am Sun Life, a charity match at the Quebec Videotron Center. Furthermore, Roman Josi and he accompanied their teammate Jonathan Marchessault, one of the main ambassadors of the event.

“You choose a team, and there, you find that you have to start from scratch,” continued the veteran.

He feared that integration into a new environment is difficult for his wife. Similarly, three young children; Rather, he was “pleasantly surprised” in the way things happened for them.

“It is a beautiful city where to live, the schools are good, the sport is well organized for children … I expected that hockey is easy for me. what the rest is more difficult for them, and it is the opposite which has arrived,” noted Stamkos, smiling, reference to the misery season that Predators have known-30-44-8.^e rank of the general classification.

This summer, everything is easier, he noted. The school being already started again in Tennessee, the family routine has resumed its course. It only remains to hope that this lightness is transposed on the ice for the preds. In a way, it can’t be worse.

Nashville predators | steven stamkos

Leadership

Being the latest arrival, said, is not easy for anyone. Not even when it is called Steven Stamkos. future member of the Hockey nashville predators | steven stamkos Fame of Hockey which was the very embodiment of leadership in Tampa.

When he entered the locker room. in Nashville, he quickly found that he did not arrive with the aura of an old sage. At least not immediately.

Three players (Gustav Nyquist, Luke Schenn and Roman Josi) were slightly older than him. Others, like Ryan O’Reilly, had also seen Neiger. Even Filip Forsberg and Colton Sissons, at “only” 30 years, each dragged a decade of experience in the city of Country.

“It was delicate, admitted Stamkos. In Tampa, I knew all the players by heart, how they answered the different leadership tactics … Reading the play takes time. You don’t want to pound on anyone’s feet, especially with so many established veterans. It doesn’t happen overnight. It will already be much better this season. »»

We understand that the number 91 did something good. Jonathan Marchessault. who had known him for a long time for having met him in Tampa ten years ago, praised the “presence” and the “humility” of his teammate. “He is always calm, so when he speaks, we listen to him,” said the Quebecer.

For predators, it only remains to reproduce this balance on the playing surface. Stamkos. like almost all training, saw its usual production fall in 2024-2025; His 53 points in 82 games constituted his worst career harvest with the exception of his recruited season. And its -36 differential was one of the worst NHL.

These difficulties may have cost him a place in the Olympic team. Indeed, he is not one of the 26 attackers invited to the summer hockey Canada assessment camp, which will take place in Calgary at the end of August.

Even if he does not express it as such, you can feel an understandable disappointment in his voice. After all, he scored 40 goals and collected 81 points in 2023-2024. However, “there are so many good nashville predators | steven stamkos players available,” he said.

Would a shattering start to the season change things? Maybe, maybe not.

“All that we can hope, an Olympic year or not, is to play well,” said Stamkos. If it draws attention [de l’équipe canadienne]it’s a bonus. But I want to know a good start and focus on what you can do in Nashville. The rest will go without saying. I have no control on this. »»