Oliver Ekman-Larsson, John Tavares and William Nylander each had a goal and two assists, and Matthew Knies had three assists for the Maple Leafs (2-2-0), who lost consecutive games to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday and Monday. Cayden Primeau made 27 saves in his Toronto debut.
Michael McCarron, Erik Haula, Roman Josi and Nick Perbix scored, and Justus Annunen made 22 saves in his season debut for the Predators (2-1-1), who defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Monday.
Tavares put Toronto up 3-2 at 8:49 of the second period when he jammed in a loose puck at the top of the goal crease off a rebound from Nylander’s shot.
Bobby McMann, who hit the goal post on a breakaway earlier in the second period, made it 4-2 at 16:24 when his shot at the bottom of the right face-off circle went off Brady Skjei’s stick and between Annunen’s left pad and the post.
Matthews stretched it to 5-2 at 10:42 of the third period when he took a pass on a give-and-go with Knies and shot from below the right hashmarks past Annunen’s outstretched right pad. Easton Cowan had a secondary assist for his first NHL point.
Josi cut it to 5-3 at 16:06 when he shot from the blue line past a screened Primeau.
Matthews shot into an empty net at 16:50 to make it 6-3 before Nick Perbix cut it to 6-4 at 18:49.
Nylander added another empty net goal at 19:34 for the 7-4 final.
The Maple Leafs went up 1-0 at 8:42 of the first period when McCabe’s shot from the blue line deflected off Erik Haula’s hip at the top of the left face-off circle.
Ekman-Larsson made it 2-0 at 13:34 when he took a pass just inside the blue line from Nylander and had his shot from the top of the right circle inadvertently redirected by Ozzy Wiesblatt at the top of the goal crease.
McCarron cut it to 2-1 at 3:21 of the second period when he jammed in a loose puck behind Primeau that trickled loose from Skjei’s shot.
Haula tied it 2-2 at 4:05. After Wiesblatt stole the puck from Chris Tanev behind the net, he found Haula, who shot from the bottom of the right circle.