Bring it on. The NHL’s 1,271-game, six-month-long regular season is over. The Stanley Cup playoffs return with 16 teams – including six entries that failed to reach the postseason last year (Tampa Bay, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Colorado) and one expansion franchise (Vegas) that many picked to finish last – meeting in eight first-round series starting with three games on Wednesday night and five matchups on Thursday.
The Nashville Predators edged out the soaring Winnipeg Jets to win their first Presidents’ Trophy, giving last season’s wild-card entry and eventual Cup finalist home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. The Preds finished with 117 points despite not having a single player in the NHL’s top-50 points leaders. Filip Forsberg’s 64 points in 67 games earned the winger the No. 54 spot.
The Predators remain the NHL’s best team for the second straight week 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.
With five straight wins to end their season and the second-highest points total (114) in the league, the Jets climb a spot to No. 2 in the rankings after sitting in third place last week behind the Boston Bruins, who drop one spot to No. 3 after losing to both the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.
The Eastern Conference champion Lightning, with their league-high 54 victories, stay at No. 4 this week while the Toronto Maple Leafs, who set a franchise points record (105) this season, round out our panel’s top five in the No. 5 spot for a second consecutive week.
The Vegas Golden Knights, the most successful expansion franchise in NHL history with 51 wins and 109 points, finish the regular season in the No. 7 spot from last week’s No. 6 placing, the position held by the Washington Capitals this week.
Winnipeg remains the top Canadian team, with Toronto the second-best team in the country. Canada’s other five teams, who all failed to qualify for the playoffs this year, rank in the following order: Edmonton Oilers (No. 21), Calgary Flames (No. 23), Vancouver Canucks (No. 27), Montreal Canadiens (No. 28) and the Ottawa Senators (No. 30).
The Anaheim Ducks had an outstanding week, jumping four spots to No. 9 in the rankings after a 3-0 record last week, edging out San Jose for the second spot in the Pacific Division and home-ice advantage against the Sharks in the first round. On the other hand, the St. Louis Blues had a terrible week, going 1-3 to drop three spots to No. 18 after losing last Saturday’s winner-takes-all season finale to the Avalanche to miss the playoffs. Colorado, the NHL’s worst team last season with just 48 points, gained 47 points in the standings to take the final wild-card spot in the West.
In the East, Taylor Hall and his Devils went on a 10-2-1 run to nail down the last wild-card spot after finishing dead last in their conference last season.
Ending 2017-18 in the NHL’s basement to sit among the bottom-five teams are the Canucks, Canadiens, the No. 29 Detroit Red Wings, Senators and the No. 31 Buffalo Sabres, who drop two spots this week after losing their final four games but, on the positive side, gain the best draft lottery odds by finishing worst overall.