The Nashville Predators found a top line last month, and night in and night out, you have seen the impact it has had on the team, especially offensively. What is crazy about it is that just until two weeks ago, they were doing it with one of their key weapons having a case of the yips.
Filip Forsberg was in the middle of a long goal-scoring drought dating back to November 25, well before the line of him, Steven Stamkos, and Jonathan Marchessault was formed. He was more than pulling his weight in the assist department, averaging over one per game, but for a natural goal scorer, the fact that he just could not put one the net in was mind boggling.
That was until January 7 when Forsberg finally scored again, and ever since, you can say he has been making up for lost time. He suddenly cannot be stopped with six goals in his last five games, and the league has noticed, naming him second star for the week ending on January 19.
Filip Forsberg playing like a top player in league since breaking goal-scoring drought
One thing that has been noticeable since last year, when Andrew Brunette took over as head coach of the Nashville Predators, is how Forsberg has played as a puck distributor and playmaker. He has maintained his prowess as a scorer while elevating his game as a passer, making him one of the more offensively prolific players in the league, and that is what we have seen in the past two weeks.
Forsberg has been making it happen everywhere on offense, at even strength and on the powerplay, mainly on the back of a new goal scoring streak. One of them was a clutch goal while down 2-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks last Thursday, one that showcased his lethal shot and why he is as great of a player as he is.
But he also has not forgotten how to distribute the puck, and one instance of that was shown on Saturday when he had a beautiful dish to Stamkos for a goal. All in all, Forsberg has six goals and three assists in his past five games, having almost double the points recorded than games played.
This development is also a big discussion point lots of people were making as it pertains to the performance of the Predators top line. As well as they were performing in December and the first few days of January, they were doing so without Forsberg at his best, and we could only imagine what was going to happen once he got it back together.
We clearly saw the extra boost he gave them last week while was was still distributing as well as before and adding his scoring touch. His diverse offensive skillset is a big reason why the Predators are now on a three-game winning streak, and also part of why they are still hanging onto hope even in a season that looks lost.
Forsberg clearly never forgot how to score, he was just in a funk like all players go through, and now he is playing dangerous and impacting everyone else around him. It is safe to say at this point that we can eliminate top line as one of the problems on the Predators for the season.