Turning over a new Leaf in 7-Eleven Power Rankings

Auston Matthews scored his second overtime goal of the season to give Toronto a 4-3 win in Montreal and end a 14-game winless streak against the Canadiens dating back to January 2014. 

After an injury-plagued season in which he played in just 17 games, Jonathan Quick has returned to form, going undefeated in his first four games and sporting a .943 save percentage. 

The goal-scoring exploits of their first two games (15 goals) couldn’t continue, but it doesn’t matter because veteran Corey Crawford leads the league with a .960 save percentage. 

The Lightning are off to a good start, in no small part thanks to Nikita Kucherov, the first Lightning player to score a goal in each of their first five games. Brayden Point has eight points in five games.

Still without a loss and without Erik Karlsson, the Sens pulled off a Western Canadian sweep for the first time in franchise history, outscoring the Canucks 3-2, Flames 6-0 and Oilers 6-1. 

Both the Jackets and Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky have picked up where they left off last season. Bobrovsky is 4-0 with a .952 save percentage. New addition Artemi Panarin has seven points.

The impressive part is that four of their five games have been played on the road, where the Wings have three of their four wins. Henrik Zetterberg has seven points while bluelliner Mike Green has eight.

Vegas is the first expansion team to win their first three games, although expansion teams rarely start off with Stanley Cup finalists such as James Neal and Marc-Andre Fleury in their lineup. 

Great individual numbers highlight the early going, with nine goals by Ovechkin, 11 assists by Kuznetsov, and 11 points from Backstrom to take the top-three NHL points leader spots. 

Matt Murray hasn’t disappointed in his No. 1 role, starting off the season with a 3-0-1 record between the pipes. And Sidney Crosby is back to form, scoring twice Saturday against the Panthers.

After starting the season 4-0 for only the second time in franchise history, the Blues headed to the state of Florida and lost two straight, with offensive production that has plummeted since opening night. 

Mike Smith earned a shutout last week that snapped an NHL record 25-game skid in Anaheim that dated back to 2004. Jaromir Jagr recorded his first point as a Flame on Saturday.

It’s been quite a turnaround for the Jets, winning three in a row after opening with two losses in which they were outscored 15-7. Great Dane Nikolaj Ehlers has five goals in five games. 

Four wins in six games is a surprise, as is the team’s top goal scorers with three each: ex-Oiler No. 1 Nail Yakupov, ex-Habs pick Sven Andrighetto, and supposed-to-have-been traded Matt Duchene. 

The Flyers lit up Washington in their home opener, winning 8-2, scoring the most goals they’ve had in a home opener since notching nine in 1982. Red-hot Jakub Voracek has nine points in five games.

It’s only three games into their season, but managing just one goal in two of those games is not positive. Justin Williams (just two assists) and Jeff Skinner (just two goals) need to up their game.

Although Bob Boughner's charges are only outscoring teams by one goal, they’ve outshot them by an average of 10.2 per game, and lead the league with an average of 42 shots per game. 

The Ducks, losers of two straight, have battled injuries and a weak power play to start the season. They’ve failed to score with the man advantage over their first six games in 21 opportunities. 

The bad news is the Wild won just one of their first four. The good news is they earned points in three of those games. The worst news? Injuries to Parise, Niederreiter, Coyle, Foligno and Granlund.

The Stanley Cup finalists got off to a poor 0-2 start, but quickly rebounded last week with two wins and an overtime loss in Chicago. Forsberg and Subban both have seven points in five games. 

Still no Patrice Bergeron to provide some goal scoring, and finishing off a bad week by coming within 30 seconds of being shut out by castoff Malcolm Subban in a 3-1 loss in Vegas really hurt the Bruins.

The offence hasn’t been explosive with just 11 goals, but the goaltending has been better this season with Ben Bishop, and the Stars have scored a power play goal in each of their first five games. 

The Islanders’ power play is off to a rocky start, going 0-for-20 over their first six games, but they have managed to score two shorthanded goals. Time for Tavares, with just three points, to spark the offence.

The Canadiens have yet to win a game in regulation time - they’re averaging 1.40 goals per game - and Carey Price has a save percentage of .885. Will they finally turn it around on the road this week?

Goal scoring has been a problem for the Rangers, who are averaging 2.17 goals per game after finishing fourth last year with 3.09 per game. Should bench boss Alain Vigneault be updating his resume? 

A four-game homestand to start the year hasn’t benefitted the Sharks, who have only one player (Kevin Lebanc) with more than one goal. Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns and Joe Thornton have just a point apiece.

Some early oddities: No player has more than two points, and Henrik Sedin (28 PIM last year) had three minor penalties at three different times over 10 minutes in one period versus Calgary Saturday.  

The Sabres finally got into the win column with a 3-1 defeat of Anaheim in their sixth game, thanks to three different players scoring their first goal of 2017. Did Jack Eichel's 'sick of losing' rant pay off?

The last remaining winless team has been outscored 22-11. The 4.40 goals per game they’ve allowed is worst in the league. And new head coach Rick Tocchet has already apologized to the fans.