It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Vegas Golden Knights, the most successful expansion team in NHL history, are still firing on all cylinders.
With three straight wins over the Los Angeles Kings in their first three playoff games, the Golden Knights are just one win away from reaching the second round and, as a result, are the No. 1 playoff team this week in TSN’s 7-Eleven Power Rankings (the first playoff ranking of 2018), according to consensus rankings formulated by the TSN Power Ranking panel of Ray Ferraro, Jeff O’Neill, Jamie McLennan, Craig Button and Darren Dreger.
The high-scoring Boston Bruins, who pounded the Toronto Maple Leafs with 12 goals (including four goals and five assists from first-line winger David Pastrnak) to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series, are No. 2 this week. Winners of the Presidents’ Trophy, the Nashville Predators have a 2-0 series lead over Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche to earn the No. 3 spot in our top three.
Backed by Andrei Vasilevskiy’s .933 save percentage, the Tampa Bay Lightning are ranked No. 4 after easy Game 1 and 2 home wins over the New Jersey Devils. The Winnipeg Jets were whipped 6-2 by the Minnesota Wild (No. 9) in Sunday’s Game 3 in Minneapolis, but are in the No. 5 spot with their 2-1 series lead.
The surprising San Jose Sharks, thanks to Martin Jones’ .964 save percentage, are the No. 6 team this week after two straight victories over the Ducks in Anaheim. The inconsistent Ducks slipped ahead of the Sharks for second spot in the Pacific Division regular-season standings, but they’re ranked No. 12 this week.
Buoyed by Artemi Panarin’s five points and Sergei Bobrovsky’s .920 save percentage, the No. 7-ranked Blue Jackets return home for Game 3 Tuesday with a 2-0 series lead over the Washington Capitals (No. 10). Columbus is just two wins away from advancing to Round 2 for the first time in franchise history.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, who have scored 13 goals in three games for a 2-1 series lead over the No. 11 Philadelphia Flyers, are No. 8 this week to round out the teams with winning records thus far in Round 1.
Badly missing starting goalie Semyon Varlamov, the Avalanche are ranked No. 13 after dropping their first two to the Predators. Nathan MacKinnon has three points in two games, but so far it just hasn’t been enough against a loaded Preds squad that has beaten the Avs 12 straight times.
Rounding out the bottom-three teams are the Maple Leafs (No. 14), who were badly outplayed by the Bruins in both of their opening-round games, losing each game by four goals; the No. 15 Devils, who will go with Cory Schneider in Monday night's Game 3 after Keith Kinkaid allowed nine goals in two games; and the Kings (No. 16), who are one loss away from being eliminated by the Golden Knights to earn the dubious distinction of being the worst playoff team in this week’s rankings.