Nashville Predators' Olli Jokinen, right, of Finland, celebrates his goal against the Arizona Coyotes with teammates Calle Jarnkrok (19), of Sweden, and Colin Wilson (33) as Coyotes' Keith Yandle (3) skates past during the third period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014, in Glendale, Ariz. The Predators defeated the Coyotes 5-1. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Most observers of this league can probably agree that one of the big surprises so far this season has been the overwhelming and frankly shocking success of the Nashville Predators.

Here we are in mid-December and the Preds, with a new coach and very much retooled roster, are putting together a very convincing case that they will be making the playoffs with relative ease in another four months' time. Most predictions for Conference III specifically probably would have put them a little bit outside the top-3, logically behind Chicago and St. Louis, and maybe Dallas — woefully disappointing Dallas — and even Minnesota. Put another way, “on the outside looking in” was probably a reasonable place to put their playoff hopes.

But at this point, even if they go .500 the rest of the way, the likelihood that they miss the playoffs isn't as big as it probably should be given the on-paper talent. This is a team using Colin Wilson as its No. 2 center, and say what you want about his season (it's been okay!) but that doesn't typically portend “Western Conference heavyweight.”

So one has to wonder, at some point, exactly how good this team actually is in the grand scheme of things. We've seen more than enough evidence of teams surging out to huge leads in their divisions only to falter because the foundation — see also: The Process — upon which those point totals are built is poorly constructed and also on top of a swamp. For the most part, however, this is not the case with the Predators.

Prior to Sunday's games, the Predators were seventh in the league in score-adjusted corsi-for at 5-on-5, at 53 percent. This is a huge step forward from last year's 48.4 percent, which had them 23rd in the league and rather deserving of a coaching change and missed playoff berth. Basically, if you're taking 53 percent of the shot attempts in all your games you're doing something very, very right, and for the Predators, unlike some other teams in that area, aren't being dragged to that number by a few players being utterly dominant. In fact, only six regulars have a sub-50 CF%, and for the most part those are guys logging the toughest minutes with Shea Weber and Roman Josi chief among them.

(As an aside, this is just a thing with Weber: His possession numbers are basically never north of 50 percent, and you can attribute that to the fact that he gets some of the toughest assignments in the league, to some extent. But guys like Zdeno Chara and Mark Giordano log tougher minutes, and yet drive play consistently in the right direction. And despite this, The Eye Test and conventional wisdom says that Weber is elite, though those two issues are often one and the same. Is this a failing of advanced metrics or our eyes fooling us because this guy can shoot the puck through a wall and he puts up a lot of points? If it's the former, why is Weber basically the only “elite” defenseman for whom this type of thing applies? Interesting test case. One that requires a lot more study.)

Basically, if you are looking for the best ways to define a “very good team,” 53 percent corsi is a pretty good cutoff. The “elite” level is 55 percent, and right now, oddly, only one team (Chicago) is there.

And if you look at the Predators' roster real close, you can see why: The top line of James Neal, Mike Ribeiro, and Filip Forsberg has been the best one in the league to this point in the season, putting the puck in the net and simultaneously preventing its opponents from doing so at an alarming rate (Forsberg's 5-on-5 goals-for percentage is around 85, a ludicrous number by any means: 30 for and just five against in 29 games.)They're also driving possession very well, all well above 55 percent, and while their ability to outscore opponents at the current rate is going to dwindle because it mathematically has to, the possession will help to buoy them otherwise.

But what's been so interesting this season hasn't necessarily been all the puck-having these guys are doing, but rather how thoroughly they've dominated teams in terms of scoring overall. Their 60 goals for at 5-on-5 has them tied for second in the league with Chicago and the Islanders, and the 34 goals against is the best mark by a notable enough margin that it'd take a real bad game by Pekka Rinne for the second team (Pittsburgh) to catch up.