After finally signing William Nylander to a six-year deal on Saturday and with the return of star centre Auston Matthews to the lineup last week (four points in his first two games), the Toronto Maple Leafs are reloaded and ready to send shivers through the NHL with an even more lethal lineup.
Led by Mitch Marner’s 38 points – good enough for the No. 4 spot in the scoring race – and Frederik Andersen’s league-leading 15 wins in net, the Maple Leafs have won four straight as they continue a road swing that has them playing seven of their next eight on the road (they’re 10-3 away from Scotiabank Arena) following Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Wild in Minnesota.
Toronto, which our panel ranked first two weeks ago, moves up three spots to No. 1 in our weekly 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. The Leafs own the NHL’s third-best power play and are second in the overall NHL standings with 38 points, a point back of the No. 2 Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning move up one spot after going 2-1-0 last week while the Nashville Predators drop one position to No. 3 after a 1-2-0 week. Last week’s No. 1 team, the Buffalo Sabres, slip to No. 4 after going 1-1-1 last week as their 10-game winning streak came to an end in Tampa. Rounding out our panel’s top five this week is the on-a-roll Colorado Avalanche at No. 5 after an impressive 3-0-1 record in their last four games.
The red-hot Anaheim Ducks make the biggest climb of the week, jumping 13 places after four straight wins, including rallying from a 5-1 deficit to edge the No. 7 Washington Capitals 6-5, to land in the No. 9 spot. The Minnesota Wild have the biggest drop of the week, falling seven places to No. 13 from No. 6 a week ago after losing three straight.
Aside from the top-ranked Leafs and the No. 6 Winnipeg Jets, the other top Canadian teams this week include the No. 8 Calgary Flames (rising two places from a week ago) and the surging Edmonton Oilers at No. 16, moving up five spots after going 3-0-0 last week under new head coach Ken Hitchcock, who is now 4-1-1 in Edmonton.
The Montreal Canadiens drop five spots to No. 18 this week while the Ottawa Senators rise six places to No. 22 after a 3-1-0 week. Canada’s worst team this week is the No. 29 Vancouver Canucks, who drop two spots after managing just one win in their last 12 games to sit among the NHL’s five worst teams this week. The Canucks acquired forward Josh Leivo from the Leafs on Monday and are hoping the winning pedigree he brings from Toronto will pay dividends on the West Coast.
The other struggling clubs this week include the New Jersey Devils at No. 27, the No. 28 Chicago Blackhawks, who have lost four straight and are just 3-8-2 under new coach Jeremy Colliton following the firing of Joel Quenneville last month, the Los Angeles Kings at No. 30, finally picking themselves off the basement floor after four straight weeks at No. 31, and the injury-riddled St. Louis Blues, who sit dead last this week after losing three of their last four.