Predators double-up Maple Leafs, 6-3

In Nashville, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a return of some bad habits, including porous defense and sketchy goaltending in a 6-3 loss to the Predators on Saturday.

Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators to become the franchise’s lading scorer.

“It was awesome,” Forsberg said. “Obviously, it’s been a great ride so far. I played with [Legwand] for a little bit. My first point was his 200th goal. So we’ve come a long way since then.”

Juuse Saros made 38 saves in the Nashville win.

“In situations where we haven’t played to our identity, I think that our response has been really good,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “Tonight was another example of that. I think there were some issues we had against Philadelphia that went in a different direction tonight, as far as our readiness to play and our commitment level to compete without the puck. I thought defensively we played pretty sound.”

The Predators improved to 36-22-4.

Matthias Ekholm also scored for Nashville.

Mitchell Marner hit for a double for the Leafs, and Auston Matthews added a single marker in the loss.

“I think it just kind of took me a period to get going,” Matthews said. “Even still, I felt maybe just like my timing was a little bit off, a quarter second off. I think that is kind of to be expected, but I think halfway through the game I kind of started feeling more like myself. I had some good opportunities tonight (10 shots). I hit a couple posts. All in all, I think it was a good game for me to get back into.”

The Maple Leafs dropped to 39-18-5.

“I thought it took him a while to really get going in the game, but once he did, he was real good,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He could have had three or four tonight. He could have changed the game. He gets a huge goal for us in the third, but he could have had a bunch more. He did his thing.”

Nashville grabbed an early lead off a strike from Tanner Jeannot .

Matt Duchene, Yakov Trenin and Eeli Tolvanen also scored for the Predators.