What's made Marcus Johansson a dangerous scoring threat

Talk of the Washington Capitals' core often surrounds a select few players.

You'd be hard fought to find Marcus Johansson's name among those listed. It's time to make a revision.

With 12 goals on the season, Johansson has found the back of the net as frequently as team captain and goal-scoring machine Alex Ovechkin, who co-lead the team. And with 21 points, Johansson trails only Nicklas Backstrom's 24 points for the team lead in scoring.

In a season where center Evgeny Kuznetsov has failed expectations, Johansson has made his home up the middle as a front-line scoring threat.

Consistency has long been the name of Johansson's game, averaging 46 points in each of the past three seasons. Going back five years, Johansson has produced at 0.59 points per game. This year, he's reached a new level, as that number has climbed to 0.81.

As well, Johansson's five game-winning goals leads the Capitals and sits just one back of Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Carter for tops in the NHL.

So what's changed?

Most importantly, Johansson has taken to heart the instructions of coach Barry Trotz. That is, go to the net. The veteran bench boss believes many of his players have been guilty of overthinking the game. In short, keep it simple.

"I think all (Johansson's) goals are in the house that everybody talks about, close to the net," Trotz told J.J. Regan of CSN Mid-Atlantic. "If guys aren't scoring, you're probably not going to find them there."

No doubt Johansson is relishing the results.

"If you stay with it and you go to the net," Johansson said, "I think a lot of the times it's going to bounce your way in the end."