What lives in the Atlantic, has trouble scoring, gives up way too many goals and can’t win?
You guessed it – four bottom-feeding teams in the NHL’s lowly Atlantic Division. The No. 31 Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators (No. 29), the No. 28 Detroit Red Wings and the Florida Panthers (No. 27) are four of the five-worst teams this 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.
The other team that completes the power rankings’ terrible-five list is the Arizona Coyotes, who fall to No. 30 as the league’s second-worst team from No. 28 a week ago. They remain last in the Pacific Division after losing all three of their games last week.
On the flip side, teams that consistently score plenty of goals and have first-rate goaltending (no surprise) make up the power rankings’ top five, and all five teams won all of their games last week.
The Tampa Bay Lightning move up a spot to first overall, followed by the Los Angeles Kings who were ranked No. 5 last week. Powered by an eight-game win streak, the red-hot Kings are just ahead of the St. Louis Blues who remain at No. 3. The high-scoring Toronto Maple Leafs creep up three places to No. 4 overall, while the NHL’s best story of 2017-18, the Vegas Golden Knights, who were ranked No. 31 in the first power rankings of the season, are No. 5 from No. 8 a week ago.
The Leafs are also Canada’s best team this week, followed by the slumping Winnipeg Jets, who plummet to No. 9 overall after sitting atop the heap last week. The No. 15 Calgary Flames move up two spots from last week – thanks to Mike Smith’s goaltending and the surprising play of former first-round draft pick (No. 4 overall, 2014) Sam Bennett (8 points in his last seven games) – and are the nation’s third-best team. The Vancouver Canucks remain at No. 21 while the Montreal Canadiens have the biggest slide of the week, plunging to No. 23 from No. 13 a week ago.
The inconsistent Edmonton Oilers (will RNH be dealt before the trade deadline?) fall to No. 25 from No. 22 last week and - you guessed correctly again – the underachieving Ottawa Senators, who obviously have some big problems in their room, remain Canada’s worst team, falling to No. 29 overall from No. 27 last week.