After the first five days of the new NHL season, Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay Lightning remain in familiar territory – atop TSN’s weekly Power Rankings.
Tampa Bay is expected to be a force to be reckoned with again this season after Vasilevskiy made 42 saves in the Lightning’s 2018-19 season opening night shootout win over the Florida Panthers. They’re also the top-ranked team for the second consecutive week in our weekly 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 No. 2 Nashville Predators, who finished the 2017-18 regular season with the league’s best road record (25-9-7), move up two spots from No. 4 a week ago after two road victories in their first two games. Making a huge jump to No. 3 this week from their No. 14 ranking a week ago are the rejuvenated and unbeaten Dallas Stars under new head coach Jim Montgomery.
Rounding out the top five this week, according to our panel, are the No. 4 Toronto Maple Leafs, who slip one spot after losing their second game of the season to the surprising Ottawa Senators on home ice, and the No. 5 Colorado Avalanche, who leap 13 spots from their No. 18 ranking last week with convincing wins in Week 1.
The Winnipeg Jets, last week’s No. 2 team, fall four places to No. 6 this week after having an off night in their 5-1 loss to Dallas on Saturday after winning their opener against the St. Louis Blues, also a 5-1 score. Last season, the Jets started their season with less than stellar outings but soon found their winning form and finished second overall with 52 wins and 114 points.
The other top-10 teams in this week's rankings include: the No. 7 Washington Capitals, falling two spots from No. 5 a week ago; the amazing Carolina Hurricanes at the No. 8 spot, leaping 19 places from No. 27 last week; the No. 9 Chicago Blackhawks, led by Jonathan Toews’ five goals to catapult from the No. 29 spot a week ago for the most significant move of the week; and the Anaheim Ducks, who climb to No. 10 from No. 16 a week ago.
The Blues suffer the biggest drop of the week, plummeting 15 spots to No. 26 overall from No. 11 last week after managing just a single point in their first two games of the season.
Besides Toronto, who are led by Auston Matthews’ eight points in three games to sit atop the NHL scoring race and four goals from John Tavares, and Winnipeg, the other top Canadian team this week is the No. 11 Montreal Canadiens, who move up 12 spots after opening the season at the No. 23 position.
Hiding out in the NHL’s basement this week are the No. 27 Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild at No. 28, Edmonton Oilers at No. 29 – falling 12 spots after losing their opener to the New Jersey Devils in Sweden, the winless New York Rangers at No. 30 and the No. 31 Arizona Coyotes, who fall from their No. 24 ranking a week ago.