Rangers Star Rick Nash Leads the NHL in Goals: How Is He Doing It?

It became somewhat of an unintentional running joke during the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The New York Rangers' public relations staff would release daily notes on the team: power-play stats, penalty-kill stats, points streaks, injuries, upcoming milestones, etc.

But there was one note that always drew a chuckle.

"Rick Nash is first in shots on goal (37)"

"Rick Nash is first in shots on goal (49)"

"Rick Nash is first in shots on goal (54)"

You see, leading the playoffs in shots isn't funny; it's impressive. But when you are one of the sport's most prolific scorers and have only three goals in four rounds, that stat just highlights the scoring inefficiency. 

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The Rangers' PR staff ceased mentioning Nash was the shot leader after Game 1 of the conference finals, but with the way he's scoring to start the 2014-15 regular season, it will likely be highlighting his accomplishments once again.

Nash leads the NHL with six goals in four games and, courtesy of the Rangers' PR staff, is the first player in franchise history to score in each of the team's first four games of a season.

How is he doing it? What's changed since the horror show that was the 2014 playoffs?

I would have asked Nash after he scored twice in Tuesday's 6-3 loss to the Islanders, but I was in the winning locker room, and besides, a player would rather discuss anything before talking about how he's scored six goals for a team that's lost three straight.

So let's look at Nash's six goals this season and see how he scored them and whether this a sign of a big season or a fluky hot start.

Goal 1: at St. Louis, Brian Elliott

Blues on ice: Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk, David Backes, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund

The goal: Chris Kreider does all the work here, freeing the puck for Nash to rip a quick shot from between the circles. It's easy to watch this goal and think "well, he's supposed to score from there," but how many times did he fail to score from there in the 2014 playoffs? And there's no arguing that he scored the goal with the Blues' top players on the ice.

Goal 2: at St. Louis, Brian Elliott

Blues on ice: Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Bouwmeester, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jori Lehtera

The goal: Well, this one is monumentally fluky, as Pietrangelo makes the smart, safe play by shooting the puck high off the glass, but it takes a funny bounce off a stanchion and leads to chaos. Out of that chaos, Martin St. Louis finds a wide-open Nash in the slot for a carbon copy of his first goal. But with the game on the line, Nash didn't clam up and instead fired a strong, confident shot into the open side of the net. 

Goal 3: at Columbus, Sergei Bobrovsky

Blue Jackets on ice: Jack Johnson, David Savard, Scott Hartnell, Artem Anisimov, Alexander Wennberg

The goal: This goal has an Alex Rodriguez-esque feel to it, as the game was just about over before Nash turned it into a two-goal contest. Much like his first goal against the Blues, it was the result of some soft board play that led to a turnover on which the Rangers capitalized. Nash was the beneficiary of sloppy work by the Jackets and dogged effort by his linemates.

Goal 4: vs. Toronto, James Reimer

Maple Leafs on ice: Stephane Robidas, Roman Polak, Mike Santorelli, David Clarkson, Leo Komarov

The goal: Ah, to play with Martin St. Louis and against Roman Polak at the same time. St. Louis does most of the work here, but Nash deserves credit for using his wheels to exploit a slow, out-of-position Polak for the goal. Any time Nash drives hard to the net, he's doing himself and his team a service.

Goal 5: vs. N.Y. Islanders, Jaroslav Halak

Islanders on ice: Travis Hamonic, Thomas Hickey, Kyle Okposo, Cory Conacher, John Tavares

The goal: Clearly, this is one Halak should stop. He practically deserves a primary assist on it. It's not a goal that's repeatable for Nash, but it's a good sign that he's feeling good about things. The fact he drove around Hickey and went to the net is encouraging, as is the fact he didn't carry the puck behind the net and instead flicked a quick shot he felt he could slip past Halak. There's more skill in this bad goal than meets the eye.

Goal 6: vs. N.Y. Islanders, Jaroslav Halak

Islanders on ice: Brian Strait, Griffin Reinhart, Mikhail Grabovski, Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome

The goal: Nash went full A-Rod here, scoring with 2:10 remaining against the Isles' weakest defense pairing to make it 6-3. The Isles went to sleep here, and Halak looked way off his angle when Nash released his shot. In a lot of ways, this goal was far less impressive than the first one he scored from the bad angle.

What does it all mean?

Nash is shooting at a 46.2 percent clip, which is really funny to type in a sentence. It's only about 34 percent above his career average, so yeah, things will even out at some point.

What's really discouraging in terms of sustainability is Nash's Fenwick close of 45.7 percent and minus-13.6 percent Fenwick relative, according to war-on-ice.com. It's only four games, of course, and underlying numbers don't offer much insight into a player or team in this sample size, but Nash has been extremely opportunistic in the early going.

There's no reason to think Nash can't reach the 30-goal mark if he stays healthy, but the idea that he could score 40 or 50 may not be realistic unless he continues to snipe at record-setting rates.

And for the record, he's tied for 13th in shots on goal this season with 13.

All statistics via NHL.com or war-on-ice.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.