Since then, the 31-year-old has notched 29 points in his last 19 games, including a hat-trick on October 26 against the Carolina Hurricanes. He is now among the league leaders in goals (15) and points (30).
So what happened?
"Well, I think last year, after coming off the lockout, obviously having won the Cup the year before, I think I put a little too much pressure on myself, didn't get off to a good start, then I started putting pressure more and more," St. Louis said during a conference call earlier this week. "It ended up backfiring on me. I finished the year strong. I was trying to carry that into the summer, my off-ice workouts, carry that into this year.
"I didn't start strong this year, but I was playing much better than I was at the time last year. I figured, just keep going, it's a matter of time."
A native of Laval, Quebec, St. Louis is playing with confidence and having fun doing it. He attributes being in the right state of mind to his latest success.
"Sometimes you're in those situations where you can put the puck on net and good things happen," he said. "Maybe when you score a few goals, you start to feel good about yourself. You start to feel you want to take it to the net more often. I'm definitely in that frame of mind. When you have success, I think you just try to do it a little more often."
St. Louis is currently on pace for a career-high 49 goals and 98 points. While his performance has been impressive, he knows the Lightning still need to upgrade their overall plan of attack.
The Bolts are just two games above the .500 mark and sit eighth in the Eastern Conference with 27 points.
"We know we're not going to win every game," he said. "I think if you play well away from the puck, we have enough talent on our team when we have the puck, we can make stuff happen.
"I feel good right now. I like our team. I think we're deeper than (last year). I'm confident we'll have a fair amount of success this year if we keep competing the way we can."
With 14 games left to play in the year 2006, the Lightning will only have divisional opponents on four occasions. The Atlanta Thrashers have been playing exceptionally well this season and the Carolina Hurricanes have upped their game in recent weeks. St. Louis understands the tough road ahead, but is optimistic his team can prevail.
"I think the people used to knock down our division a lot," he said. "It's nice to see the last two years we have the two Cup champions. I think we've earned a little more respect now.
"It's going to be a dogfight. We know our divisional games are so important. It's a long year. Just got to keep up with the pack, try to get hot at the right time."
