Owners of a pristine 8-0 road record, the Nashville Predators are the only team to be perfect away from home ice so far this season and, as such, are ranked No. 1 in our weekly Power Rankings for a second consecutive week.
Nashville, which remains first overall in the NHL standings after winning five straight, has been ranked either No. 1 or 2 in six of our first seven TSN 7-Eleven Power Rankings of 2018-19 and are this week’s highest-ranked team once again, 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 Predators, who had the league’s best road record last season, have been backstopped by Pekka Rinne (6-1-0) and his league-best 1.55 goals-against average and .949 save percentage as the quarter-season mark for most teams approaches this weekend. It’s the point in the season when many general managers ponder shuffling the deck but you can bet that Nashville GM David Poile won’t be among the team executives thinking about reloading their rosters in a bid to save their seasons.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, who had won four straight prior to Sunday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators, remain in the No. 2 spot for a second straight week. The Bolts are being chased by the red-hot Minnesota Wild, who remain in the No. 3 position this week after going 5-2 on their franchise-record seven-game road trip.
Minnesota has won 10 of its last 12 games thanks to top-notch goaltending from Devan Dubnyk (8-3-2 record,.933 SV%) and Alex Stalock (3-1; .905 SV%) and plenty of high-octane offence from Mikael Granlund, who has four goals in his last three games and eight tallies in his last 10 to lead the Wild in scoring (18 points).
Rounding out our top five this week are the No. 4 Boston Bruins, moving up six spots from No. 10 last week, and the No. 5 Winnipeg Jets, who won both of their games last week after sitting in the No. 7 position a week ago.
Sharing the most significant gain of the week - with both teams catapulting 14 spots after going 3-0 last week - are the Philadelphia Flyers and the Florida Panthers. The Flyers leap to No. 9 this week after being ranked No. 23 while the Panthers jump to the No. 15 spot from third last (No. 29) a week ago. Making the biggest drop of the week are the slumping Edmonton Oilers, who have lost four straight to fall all the way to No. 22 after being ranked No. 6 last week.
The lowest-ranked teams this week include: the No. 27 Anaheim Ducks, who continue to have problems scoring; the Senators at No. 28, climbing two spots from last week despite their league-worst penalty kill; the No. 29 New Jersey Devils, losers of three straight who managed just one victory on their seven-game road trip; the No. 30 Chicago Blackhawks, whose downward spiral (their losing skid now sits at seven games) continues under new coach Jeremy Colliton; and the offensively challenged Los Angeles Kings, who sit dead last at No. 31 for a second straight week and have now lost another goalie to injury. Jack Campbell is out for four-to-six weeks with a torn left meniscus to join No. 1 netminder Jonathan Quick (also a torn meniscus in his knee) on the shelf.