Forsberg Hat Trick Leads Preds to Victory in Regular-Season Finale

The most successful regular season in Predators history finished with one more exclamation point.
Filip Forsberg recorded a hat trick as Nashville defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets by a 4-2 final on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. The win adds to Nashville's franchise-record totals on the season, giving them 53 victories and 117 points to close out the 2017-18 campaign - with the Presidents' Trophy in the house.
Prior to Saturday's game, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly was on hand to present the trophy to the Preds for finishing the season with the League's top record. As Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said following the contest, the team was proud to accept the honor in recognition of the past six months that included milestone after milestone, a way to conclude one chapter before beginning the next.

"It was nice to take a minute just to acknowledge that," Laviolette said. "Our guys are proud of it. They worked really hard this year. They stayed focused for the entire year, and like I said, it's all been part of a vision of something bigger than what happened tonight."
A three-goal first period - one from Austin Watson, and then a pair from Forsberg - gave the Predators a hefty advantage after 20 minutes, and although the Blue Jackets got one in the second and another in the third, one more shot from Forsberg into an empty net sealed the victory.

"We have been trying to work to this point all year," Forsberg said. "Every team in the League wants to make the playoffs. The longer the season went on - we just kept working hard and we did a lot of good things to put us in the spot where we are."
Make no mistake, the Predators are incredibly proud of all they've been able to accomplish over the past 82 games - numbers even the most positive pundits probably didn't necessarily think were possible. But now, all that is in the rearview, the slate wiped clean.
For as much as the Preds enjoyed their 53 wins this season, they still want 16 more.
"It's been so much fun with his whole group, and I thought we played really consistent throughout the whole regular season," Predators Captain Roman Josi said. "If we had a bad game or two bad games, we always responded with a good game and that's going to be huge going forward. The ultimate goal remains to win the Stanley Cup, but we're definitely proud of the regular season."
"They're already putting the playoff stickers on the helmets, so here we go," center Ryan Johansen said. "We can't wait to get things started."

Notes:
P.K. Subban skated in his 82nd game of the season on Saturday night, the only Preds player to appear in all 82 contests in 2017-18.
With the 2017-18 regular season complete, the Predators will now begin preparations for the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Nashville will host the Colorado Avalanche in Round One
, which begins next week. A full schedule and further details will be announced soon.