Prolific Predators are spreading the scoring around

NEW YORK – Take a quick guess at who has the most goals this season for the defending Western Conference champion and current Central Division-leading Nashville Predators. There are two correct answers, so it should be that much easier, right?

Not so fast.

Viktor Arvidsson and Kevin Fiala have scored 17 apiece, which puts them in a 10-way tie for 50th place in the NHL. If that seems particularly low for a team eighth in the league in scoring with 3.08 goals per game, that is by design. The Predators have four more players in double figures in goals – Filip Forsberg (16), Craig Smith (16), P.K. Subban (13), and Calle Jarnkrok (12) – and another five or six who should join them by season’s end.

The Predators attack in waves and never stop, which is how they rallied from a pair of deficits Monday night to win their third straight game, 5-4 in overtime against the New York Islanders. Ryan Johansen netted the equalizer with 42.2 seconds remaining in the third period before Roman Josi converted a give-and-go with Nick Bonino in a free-flowing extra session to bag the two points.

“The depth of our group is what we count on every night,” Johansen said. “It’s not one or two guys that we look to lug the mail here. We count on each other, every single night, to produce at both ends of the rink, and each and every single play we’re using all our D and all our forwards. We’re supporting each other and working for each other. That’s a big reason for our success this year, and will be moving forward.”

Nashville’s ability to cull goals from throughout the roster helps to explain why the Predators have been shut out only twice all season – in the second game of the campaign in Pittsburgh, and on Jan. 2 in Las Vegas, where it seems everyone in the league turns into a shell of themselves. Since that trip to Sin City, though, the Predators have been nearly unstoppable, with 38 goals scored during a 9-1-2 surge.

In the last couple of weeks, the Predators have really been clicking offensively, scoring at least three goals in six of their last seven games, and five in each of their last three.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

“It doesn’t really matter what team we play, (Peter Laviolette) and our team always puts an emphasis on getting shots on net,” Josi said. “He wants us to get shots from everywhere if we can. … We talked about wanting to get more shots. That’s our identity. So we started shooting more, and in this league, it’s so hard to score goals, we’ve just been getting it to the front of the net, and our forwards are doing a great job to get rewarded for it.”

That was exactly what happened to spark the Predators’ comeback on Monday night. Down 4-2 in the waning minutes of the second period, and looking pretty ragged, Nashville had a decent shift going when Mattias Ekholm decided to fling the puck toward the crease.

It bounced off Scott Hartnell at the doorstep, and in the ensuing scramble, Jarnkrok punched home his second goal in three February games after having gone without a tally in January. Had Jarnkrok not been there, Bonino was right next to him, to the point that even Nashville’s TV crew thought it was his goal.

With the goals that followed, Pekka Rinne was able to pick up his 27th win of the season on a night when the goalie rightly blamed himself for the predicament in which the Predators had found themselves. Rinne, of course, is rarely a problem for Nashville, to which his 2.32 goals against average and .926 save percentage would attest.

Johansen touted his teammate’s Vezina candidacy, and it would be funny if, after years of carrying the Predators and not getting the hardware, this wound up being Rinne’s year for that trophy, when his job has become less stressful, at least to the extent it ever can for an NHL goalie.

“It is nice when you’re getting the goal support that I’m getting right now,” Rinne said. “I can’t say enough about these guys. Those nights (when it’s lopsided), it’s nice, but still ... I try not to put too much on my shoulders. I don’t think I need to. We have so much talent in this room. It is different when you go into the game knowing that you’re probably going to get three goals. You have a little leeway and it’s a good feeling. You don’t stress about it, and you just focus on your game.”