The Predators had themselves quite a week - and so did Filip Forsberg.
A four-game win streak for Nashville was driven by the play of the Swedish winger, and the entire NHL has taken notice as well.
Forsberg was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week on Monday thanks to a nine-point effort (4g-5a) across those four victories, including an exclamation point on Sunday afternoon in Chicago with a pair of tallies, the latter of which came in overtime.
“We needed somebody,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said of Forsberg following Sunday’s win. “I knew we'd be low on gas here today. We need somebody to make plays, to make something happen, and he grabbed it. We were kind of waiting for parts of the game, somebody [to take over], and he said, ‘You know what, I'm going to take it.’ So, he took it. And obviously, ‘Juice’ was outstanding and got out of here with the W.”
That three-point outing against the Blackhawks followed another three-point night in last Thursday’s win over Seattle that saw Forsberg score once and set up two more goals to help his team to a massive triumph over one of the clubs Nashville continues to compete with in the Wild Card race.
Forsberg also had a goal and assist Tuesday night in Winnipeg to cap Nashville’s five-game trip and start their four-game win streak.
Overall, Forsberg is now just two points (62) behind Ryan O’Reilly for the team lead in scoring, including 32 goals, second only to Steven Stamkos’s 34 tallies on the season.
With his 184th multi-point game on Sunday, Forsberg tied Preds Captain Roman Josi for the franchise record.
Forsberg also recorded his sixth 30-goal season last week, which tied Markus Naslund for the second most by a Swedish-born player in NHL history. He trails only Hockey Hall of Famer Mats Sundin (13).
With a pair of wins over the weekend, the Predators worked their way back into the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, the first time they’ve been in a playoff spot since late October.
Nashville begins a three-game homestand on Tuesday night when it hosts San Jose - another team challenging the Preds for a playoff spot - in the first of three meetings between the two clubs before the end of the regular season.
