NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Steven Stamkos rediscovered his scoring touch with a four-goal outing Thursday night, and it’s no coincidence that the Nashville Predators‘ trajectory is suddenly pointing up.

After a slow start to the season, Stamkos now has eight goals in his past eight outings, which coincides with the Predators going 6-2 over that stretch following a 7-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.

“I’m going to have to remember what I ate for breakfast. When you get to my age sometimes you forget,” said the 35-year-old, who opened the season with four goals in his first 22 games. “Sometimes you feel the legs are feeling light and tonight, when you score one early in the game, I think that’s the feeling you have. And it was nice to contribute in a big win for our group.”

The four-goal outing was the second of Stamkos’ 18-year career. He previously scored four times in a 7-4 win at Edmonton on Dec. 14, 2023, while with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And he became just the fourth Predators player to score four times, joining Filip Forsberg and Rocco Grimaldi (both in 2021) and Eric Nystrom (2014).

Stamkos opened the scoring 8:22 in by batting in his own rebound on a 2-on-1 break. He made it 2-0 less than three minutes later by converting a rebound in front after Jordan Binnington stopped Roman Josi’s initial shot from the blue line.

He then completed his 15th career hat trick with a shot from the high slot that deflected in off the skate of Blues defenseman Justin Faulk 12:06 into the second period. And his fourth goal made it 6-2 and came 3:27 later, when Josi’s shot deflected onto Stamkos’ stick in front, from where he backhanded it in behind Binnington.

It was his 102nd career multigoal game, the third-most among active players behind only Alex Ovechkin (181) and Sidney Crosby (110). And he became the first player age 35-or-older with a 4-goal game since Anze Kopitar in 2023.

Stamkos, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft, also is closing in on becoming the 22nd player to reach 600 goals. Stamkos now has 594, leaving him seven short of matching Jari Kurri.

“It’s a little surreal, to be honest, when you look at the history of this league and how many great players there’s been,” he said of the milestone.

What mattered more was the win.

In his second season in Nashville, Stamkos was part of the Predators’ 2024 offseason major spending spree that failed to pan out with the team missing the playoffs last season. Nashville (12-14-4) followed by getting off to a slow start to this season before its recent run inching the team closer into contention.

“It hasn’t quite worked out the way that we wanted to in terms of the success we’ve had as a team. But we’re rolling right now,” Stamkos said. “I think we’re playing some hockey that people probably expected us to play, and expected of ourselves. And we want to keep that going.”

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.

Fernando Mendoza was named Associated Press Player of the Year on Thursday after leading unbeaten and top-ranked Indiana to its first Big Ten championship since 1967 and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

The redshirt junior quarterback was the overwhelming choice over fellow Heisman Trophy finalists Diego Pavia of Vanderbilt, Jeremiyah Love of Notre Dame and Julian Sayin of Ohio State. Mendoza received 32 of 51 first-place votes from a nationwide panel of media members who cover college football. Pavia got nine to lead the rest of the group, which also included Jacob Rodriguez of Texas Tech.

“I’m shining now but only because there are so many stars around me,” Mendoza said, describing his rise from lightly recruited high school prospect in 2021 to a candidate for the sport’s most prestigious awards. “There’s an analogy that the only reason we’re able to see stars in the sky is because the light reflects from all different types of stars. I have so many stars around myself — whether it’s my teammates, my coaches, my family, support staff — that I’m able to shine now in this light, and I’m so happy for everyone to be a part of this.”

Mendoza, the Hoosiers’ first-year starter after transferring from California, is the signal-caller for an offense that has surpassed program records for touchdowns and points set during last season’s surprise run to the CFP.

Mendoza has thrown for a Bowl Subdivision-leading 33 touchdowns and run for six, giving him a school-record 39 TDs accounted for.

He was the first Big Ten quarterback since 2000 with three straight games with at least four TD passes and no interceptions. His 21-of-23, 267-yard, 5-touchdown passing day in a 63-10 win at Illinois in the conference opener established him as a serious contender for national honors.

Mendoza is among 10 FBS quarterbacks who have completed better than 70% of their passes. He ranks among the most accurate passers on attempts of at least 20 yards, hitting on 23 of 43 (53.5%), and when under pressure (52.1%), according to Pro Football Focus.

Ranked the No. 72 quarterback prospect by ESPN when he was a senior at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, Mendoza was pledged to Yale for almost six months before he decommitted and signed with California.

He sat out as a redshirt in 2022 and won the starting job for the final eight games in 2023. He was 10th in the nation in passing in 2024 and ranked among the top transfer prospects after the season. He landed at Indiana, where his brother Alberto Mendoza was the No. 3 quarterback last year. This year, Alberto is the top backup to his big brother.

The dates for the first nine-game SEC schedule were released on Thursday, and all eyes are on Sept. 19, when Lane Kiffin and LSU return to Ole Miss after Kiffin’s dramatic exit for Baton Rouge.

Among other marquee games scheduled for 2026: Georgia travels to Alabama on Oct. 10 after they split two matchups in 2025: Alabama won in Athens and Georgia won in Atlanta in the SEC title game.

On Nov. 14, Arch Manning returns to his home state of Louisiana with Texas to face LSU, as former USC and Alabama colleagues Steve Sarkisian and Kiffin face off.

The following week, on Nov. 21, Kiffin leads LSU into Knoxville against Tennessee, which also was jilted by Kiffin after one season in 2009.

Kiffin is one of six SEC coaches in new places: Pete Golding at Ole Miss, Will Stein at Kentucky, Ryan Silverfield at Arkansas, Alex Golesh at Auburn and Jon Sumrall at Florida.

Stein debuts in the SEC’s first league matchup on Sept. 12, when Alabama travels to Kentucky. There are two other marquee matchups that week, when Oklahoma travels to Michigan and Ohio State visits Texas. The following week, Alabama gets a home rematch against Florida State, who beat the Tide in Week 1 of the 2025 season, and Sumrall and Golesh meet in the first Florida-Auburn game on the Plains since 2011.

On Rivalry Week, Texas at Texas A&M remains on Friday, Nov. 27, but the Egg Bowl moves to Saturday, with Mississippi State facing Golding and Ole Miss in Oxford, along with the Iron Bowl, with Auburn visiting Alabama.

The new format also allows for some new fan experiences. On Sept. 26, Texas visits Neyland Stadium and Tennessee for the first time in history for a battle for UT supremacy. On Oct. 17, Kentucky visits Oklahoma for the first time in 46 years, and the Sooners travel to Mississippi State for their first-ever meeting. Texas A&M rekindles an old Big 12 rivalry against Oklahoma in Norman, the first time the two have met since 2011.

In order to work out the new scheduling rules, some teams will play road games for a second straight year against the same team, like Arkansas, which returns to Texas, and Texas A&M, which returns to Missouri.

The additional conference game has limited the amount of programs playing smaller teams in nonconference matchups in Week 12, traditionally a tune-up game before rivalry week. This year, there are just four such games on Nov. 21: Alabama (UT-Chattanooga), Auburn (Samford), Ole Miss (Wofford) and Mississippi State (Tennessee Tech).

The league also sought to preserve three annual rivalries for each team, with the remaining six games rotating among the remaining schools. Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent in a home and away over a four-year span.

As part of the restructured schedule, the league said each school will be required to schedule at least one Power 4 opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Notre Dame.

The top two teams in league standings based on winning percentage will play in the SEC Championship in Atlanta on Dec. 5.