Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg is featured in "FACEOFF: Inside the NHL" which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Forsberg is one of several NHL stars in the series which premiered on Oct. 4. Forsberg is a central part of the second episode. We get an inside look at how Forsberg dealt with last season's painful foot injury, the grueling mental and physical side of hockey, and the moment he and wife Erin Alvey welcomed the birth of their son, Felix.

Most NHL players have specific game day routine − Forsberg is no exception. He wakes up at 8:08 a.m. every day during the season. Not 8:00, 8:05, or 8:10 − 8:08 on the dot. Then, before games, he puts on his skates at exactly 7:07.

“For a normal person, that's probably weird. But for (hockey players) it's just a routine that we have,” Forsberg said.

Waking up at the same time, eating the same pre-game meal, going through the same pre-game workout − it's all part of mental preparation Forsberg needs to get into game mode.

“When you speak it out loud, it's pretty silly,” Forsberg said.

The nagging foot injury that kept Forsberg from practicing most of last season came after a blocked shot in the Predators' 4-2 loss to the Devils on Feb. 13. In the series, we see what Forsberg had to go through to keep playing through the pain.

In addition to physical training focused on strengthening his ankle, Forsberg needed dry needling and electric stimulation to help encourage blood flow to the area.

“He's trying to heal it, but then he's irritating it every other night by playing,” said Dr. Mike Prebeg, Forsberg's physical therapist.

The extra therapy on his foot allowed Forsberg to have the best season of his career. He set the Predators' single season goals record, scoring 48 goals to break Matt Duchene's record of 43 set in 2022.

Alvey has moments of vulnerable honesty in the episode, especially when describing the dangers Forsberg faces in playing hockey. When talking about Forsberg's concussion he suffered on Feb. 11, 2023, Alvey was nearly moved to tears in recalling the moment.

“Last year was it's own nightmare,” Alvey said.

Forsberg suffered a concussion that kept him out of the lineup the remainder of the 2022-23 season. The recovery process was lengthy, but the rest allowed him to play all 82 games in the 2023-24 season.

Alvey also recalled the moment Forsberg fought Detroit's Moritz Seider. Though it was only Forsberg's third NHL fight, she said watching her husband fight on the ice was terrifying.

“No more fights,” Alvey said.

Alvey's devotion to Forsberg is apparent throughout the episode. She articulates well the worrying nature of being married to a professional athlete, but she's also huge fan of her husband's sport. She even has an air freshener of Forsberg's mustachioed face hanging from the mirror of her car.

On May 12 − shortly after the Predators lost Game 6 to the Vancouver Canucks − Forsberg's son was born.

“That's the only silver lining of losing in the playoffs,” Forsberg said. “Six, seven days later, Felix came and I've been home every single day of it.”

A disappointing end to Filip Forsberg’s hockey season was followed by one heck of an opportunistic milestone in his personal life. 

Forsberg, 30, and the Nashville Predators lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this spring, crashing out in six games against the Vancouver Canucks on May 3. Nine days later, Forsberg’s wife, Erin Alvey, gave birth their first baby, son Felix. 

With his hockey schedule suddenly freed up, it allowed Forsberg — who stars on Prime Video’s new reality series Faceoff: Inside the NHL with his wife (and Felix!) — to spend all summer with the newest addition to his family. 

“The first month and a half, it was just recovery mode for me,” Forsberg exclusively told Us Weekly. “I didn’t have to go to the rink, go to practice. I didn’t have to do anything. It was literally just spending time with him and Erin.”

Though the couple had plans in place if Forsberg was still playing when the baby arrived, Alvey admitted it was a relief that her husband was home during the birth.

“Looking back, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here,” Alvey said to Forsberg as he held their newborn.

Forsberg continued, “Especially people in my profession, it’s very rare you get that type of time early on in life. One of my teammates just had a baby two days before training camp started. That’s on the other end, you know?”

Thanks to the happenstance, Forsberg was able to play much of an active role in Felix’s first few months. 

“If we would have moved on from the first round, it could have been a mid-playoff baby,” he said. “It would have been very different. It’s not like I had to sleep in another room because he wakes up. I could just be up there.”

With the 2024-25 season right around the corner — the Predators open the regular season October 10 against the Dallas Stars — Alvey knows things are about change. 

“It’s a lot on a mom’s shoulders,” Alvey admitted. “But I feel so lucky. I’m not doing it alone. We have some help. She comes a couple hours in the mornings sometimes, which is nice. If I need her, she comes. We can’t complain. He’s a really good baby.”

Alvey has also been able to lean on the “amazing” support of the other Predators’ wives and girlfriends.

“They’re the sweetest girls,” she gushed. “I think it’s the same across the league. You become a family. It’s a small world. You all have one thing in common: your partner is gone at the same time. We really need to depend on each other. We do, particularly here in Nashville. It’s a very kind group. There’s young, there’s older, it’s just a really cool mix.”

Alvey added, “I can’t say enough good things about the girls here.”

As for baby Felix, viewers of Faceoff: Inside the NHL, which premiered Friday, October 4, will get an inside look at the excitement and chaos of his earliest moments — even if that wasn’t exactly the plan for the Forsbergs, who were first approached about the series before they even knew they were expecting. 

“I don’t know if it’s any girl’s dream to be nine months pregnant while filming a TV show,” Alvey joked. “But it was cool. I had to let go of my ego and vanity a little bit. I got the best gift I could have ever gotten, so if those extra 45 pounds are on there, it is what it is.”

All six episodes of Faceoff: Inside the NHL are streaming now on Prime Video.