The 7-Eleven Power Rankings: Lightning back on top

A 7-1 loss to Arizona ended a five-game road trip on a sour note, but prior to that they were 3-0-1. They lead the league in penalty-killing percentage at 95.1, having allowed just two power play goals.

The loss of Pekka Rinne to injury is starting to hurt the Predators. Backup Juuse Saros earned a shutout in his first replacement start, but then went 1-2, allowing 12 goals in those three games.

The Maple Leafs rebounded from two straight losses with consecutive wins over Winnipeg to maintain a perfect 5-0 record on the road. But now they must deal with a shoulder injury to Auston Matthews.

If you haven’t seen Sidney Crosby’s incredible overtime goal against Edmonton, where he undressed Ryan Strome, check out the highlight. He had eight points (5-3-8) in Pittsburgh’s 4-0 trip to Canada.

There’s no debate about the best line in the NHL this year. Mikko Rantanen (5-16-21) leads the league in scoring, Nathan MacKinnon (9-9-18) is in third and Gabriel Landeskog (10-6-16) is close behind.

The same night that the Wild celebrated Ryan Suter’s 1,000th NHL game they also won their fifth game in a row, especially impressive considering their mediocre 1-2-2 start. Devan Dubnyk has a .945 SV %.

Two days after shutting out Philadelphia 3-0, the Bruins were shut out themselves 3-0 at the hands of Montreal. Jaroslav Halak (1.43 GAA) has two shutouts for Boston and a 3-0-2 record.

The Jets lost twice to Toronto in a three-game span. In Winnipeg last week, their 15-game regular season home point streak ended, and in Toronto they were stunned by two late goals in 26 seconds.

They’ve scored at least three goals in seven straight games to go 5-1-1. Carey Price (2.13 GAA, .922 SV %) picked up his 290th career win to pass Patrick Roy for second all-time as a Canadien.

In a tough four games, the Oilers earned a point against Pittsburgh and beat Washington, Nashville and Chicago for a 6-1-1 record after their 0-2 start. Connor McDavid is fifth in NHL scoring with 17 points.

They're coming on - via a five-game point streak. Most impressive was the Sharks' 5-4 win in Nashville where they scored three goals in the final 8:20. Winger Timo Meier has six points in his last three.

Special teams haven’t helped the Blackhawks (28th in power play and 22nd in penalty killing) but a league-leading 11 goals by Patrick Kane, who’s No. 2 in NHL scoring, certainly has early in 2018-19.

Pheonix Copley stopped three shootout attempts in Calgary to earn his first NHL win. The Capitals continued their strong offensive play and lead the league with a 37.1 power play percentage.

Forty shots is usually considered a good game, but the Hurricanes are taking an average of 41.5 per game. That’s impressive enough but they also lead the league with the fewest shots against at 23.9.

An OT loss at Columbus ended a three-game winning streak but they ran their four-goal scoring streak to a fourth game. Jeff Skinner has five goals in those four games and Jason Pominville has four.

Despite a winning record, they can’t be happy with their goals against. They’ve allowed 3.80 goals per game, fifth worst in the NHL and a full goal more than last year’s 2.76 goals against.

Things are about to get a lot tougher for the Devils. They’ve built their early season success on seven of their eight games being at home. They now hit the road for seven straight starting Tuesday in Tampa.

The Islanders scored three goals in 2:52 of the third against Philadelphia to pull away for the 6-1 win. Anders Lee has eight points (2-6-8) in the last four game while Josh Bailey has five in his last three.

The Coyotes have recovered from their early ailments. In their first five games they scored a total of three goals. In their next five games they scored 22. Their record also reversed from 1-4 to 4-1.

A poor start can be traced to a lack of goal scoring – at just 2.27 per game only L.A. is worse. In eight of their 11 games they’ve scored two or fewer goals. A year ago they started their first season at 8-3.

The Stars have been decent at home where they have a 5-2 record and have averaged 3.86 goals per game. On the road, however, they are 0-3 and averaging just 1.0 goals per game.

Consecutive losses after being outscored 9-1 is bad, but the return of rookie star Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser is good. But now more bad news – Anders Nilsson and Alex Edler are out with injuries.

An embarrassing 9-1 loss to Pittsburgh in Calgary worsened their home goals against per game to a league worst 4.60 goals per game. They then rebounded to earn a point in a shootout loss to the Caps.

This isn’t something you see very often. The less than mighty Ducks, losers of five in a row (one in overtime) are last in average shots for per game at 24.5 and last in shots against at 39.1.

Matt Duchene scored twice in a losing effort in his return to Colorado and the Senators have lost three in a row (once in overtime on a penalty shot in Vegas) after their three-game winning streak.

It’s been up and down for the Blues, unable to win consecutive games. For Zach Sanford it’s been all good since his call up - he's 3-3-6 in five games playing in the NHL for the first time since 2016-17.

Their three-game losing skid is bad enough, but in those three games they’ve been outscored 13-2. They’re dead last in the NHL in goals against per game at 4.18 and also No. 31 on the penalty kill.

They ended their six-game skid when Alex Martinez scored late in the third to give them a 4-3 win. Dustin Brown returned from a broken finger to score and deliver seven hits in that Sunday victory.

The Rangers are winless on the road where they’ve been outscored 23-13. In their first of three on the West Coast they allowed a goal with 55 seconds remaining in regulation time to lose to L.A.

It’s not difficult to see why they have the league’s worst record. They can’t score (tied with Vegas at 2.27 for second worst) and can’t stop their opponents from scoring (3.82 for fourth worst).