Forget about Saturday’s 7-1 blowout loss to the Arizona Coyotes – after all, it was the Lightning's fifth road game in eight nights – Tampa Bay is tops in TSN`s 7-Eleven Power Rankings this week.
The Lightning have the league’s best penalty kill (95.1 percentage), allowing just two power play goals in their 7-2-1 start to the season, and are this week’s best team in TSN`s 7-Eleven Power Rankings, according to consensus rankings formulated by the TSN Power Ranking panel of Ray Ferraro, Jeff O’Neill, Jamie McLennan, Craig Button and Darren Dreger.
Tampa Bay, which was also ranked No. 1 in our first two Power Rankings of the 2018-19 season, went 3-1-1 on its road trip to move up two spots from last week. The No. 2 Nashville Predators fall out of first place following losses to the improving San Jose Sharks and the surging Edmonton Oilers. Nashville is really starting to miss the services of Pekka Rinne as backup Juuse Saros went 1-2 last week, giving up three third-period goals to the Sharks in just over five minutes last week before losing to the Oilers at home on Saturday.
The Toronto Maple Leafs climb to No. 3 this week from No. 5 a week ago after snapping a two-game skid with consecutive wins over the No. 8 Winnipeg Jets. But Saturday’s win over the Jets at Scotiabank Arena came at a cost as the Maple Leafs lost star centre Auston Matthews to a left shoulder injury for at least four weeks.
Rounding out the top five teams this week are the rejuvenated Pittsburgh Penguins at No. 4, following a sweep on their four-game Canadian road trip, and the No. 5 Colorado Avalanche, who slip three spots from a week ago after going .500 last week. The Avs have placed in the top 10 in our panel’s last four Power Rankings thanks to plenty of scoring from the NHL’s hottest line of Mikko Rantanen, who leads the league in scoring with 21 points, Nathan MacKinnon (18 points) and Gabriel Landeskog (16).
Making the biggest leap this week are both the Penguins and Oilers who catapult 15 spots – Pittsburgh from No. 19 last week and Edmonton to No. 10 from No. 25 a week ago. In fact, the Oilers were ranked No. 29 by our panel just two weeks ago.
The No. 6 Minnesota Wild move up six spots from last week after winning five straight following a subpar 1-2-2 start that had them ranked at a lowly No. 28 in our second Power Rankings of the season three weeks ago. Rounding out the other top-10 teams this week are the Boston Bruins at No. 7; the No. 8 Jets, the Montreal Canadiens at No. 9 and the Oilers in 10th spot following three straight wins, including victories over the defending Stanley Cup-champion Washington Capitals (No. 13) and Presidents’ Trophy winning Predators.
The less than mighty Anaheim Ducks at No. 24 make the biggest plunge of the week, dropping 16 spots from No. 8 a week ago after losing five straight following a strong 5-1 start to the campaign.
The top Canadian team this week is Toronto followed by Winnipeg, Montreal and Edmonton. The Vancouver Canucks plunge to No. 22 after sitting at No. 11 last week while the No. 23 Calgary Flames drop seven places and the Ottawa Senators take a dive to No. 25 from their No. 13 position a week ago.
The Florida Panthers are hoping their two-game series in Finland with the Jets later this week will lift them out of their misery and the No. 27 spot. The other NHL teams hiding in the league's basement this week include: the No. 28 Philadelphia Flyers, who have lost three straight; the Los Angeles Kings, stuck in the No. 29 spot despite ending a six-game skid; the No. 30 New York Rangers, who slip three spots from last week; and the Detroit Red Wings at No. 31, splattered on the cellar floor for a third straight week.