Forsberg Scores Twice in Return as Preds Fall to Golden Knights

Filip Forsberg scored twice in his return, but it wasn't enough as the Nashville Predators fell to the Vegas Golden Knights by a 5-2 final on Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result gives the Preds a split of their two games on the homestand thus far with three defeats in their last four overall.
Forsberg was back in the lineup after a nine-game absence due to injury, and his first multi-goal game of the season gave the Preds life in the third period, but they were unable to find more than that against the opposition.

"Not good enough," Forsberg said of his team's effort. "I think we kind of shot ourselves in the foot by not executing. Obviously, a handful of their goals were kind of given to them, and the power play definitely has to step up, too. It's been working really well, but today was not the best effort overall."
"They're a good team, don't get me wrong, but we just turned pucks [over]," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "They're a good team, they forecheck well, but I think when you look at the decisions that we made and the execution we made, that was a big issue."
Vegas held a 1-0 lead after one period of play courtesy of a goal from Chandler Stephenson with less than a minute to play in the opening frame, and the Golden Knights beat Preds goaltender Juuse Saros twice more in the second stanza for a 3-0 advantage through 40 minutes.
A Forsberg goal was negated late in the middle period after Vegas won a challenge for goaltender interference, but the winger got one back when he converted on a breakaway and beat Vegas goaltender Robin Lehner with a backhand deke.

"He was good - I thought he had some good energy and obviously scored two nice goals… and he worked hard to get back, so it's nice to see him get back and get rewarded for hard work," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said of Forsberg. "I'm glad that he had a couple on the board, and I think there's some areas of his game that can be cleaned up, but I thought his energy and skating was good. [He] was firing the puck tonight, and that's a big strength of his, so that's a positive."
Vegas added a fourth goal - this time while shorthanded - and although Forsberg brought the Preds back to within two with a power-play marker for his second of the night, that was as close as Nashville came to mounting a comeback.

The Golden Knights added an empty-netter before the contest was complete, and Saros finished with 30 saves in the loss.
With the homestand now two-thirds of the way done, the Predators will have an opportunity on Friday to finish the stint how they started it, and Forsberg offered some insight into how his team might find success once more.
"I think just the execution part," Forsberg said. "Especially in the second period, we were turning a lot of pucks over, we're not executing passes on tape, and like I said, obviously it's a couple of individual mistakes that go the other way, and you can't let that happen against a team like this. They're obviously a really good team and you can't give them anything for free, and I think the executing part is going to be a big emphasis on practice tomorrow.

Notes:

Prior to Wednesday's game, the Predators reassigned forward Michael McCarron to Milwaukee of the AHL. Nashville also assigned defenseman Ben Harpur to Milwaukee on a conditioning loan.
Harpur - along with defenseman Philippe Myers - were scratched for Nashville on Wednesday night.
The Predators will complete their three-game homestand when they host the New Jersey Devils on Friday evening with a 5 p.m. CT start time. The game will be shown exclusively on ESPN+ across the country. That outing will start a back-to-back set for Nashville; they'll head to Colorado following the game to face the Avalanche on Saturday night.