Nov 26, 2018
The 7-Eleven Power Rankings: Sabres keep finding ways to win
The sizzling Buffalo Sabres, who are on a nine-game winning streak after finishing dead last in 2017-18, move up four spots to No. 1 in TSN's weekly 7-Eleven Power Rankings.
What a difference a year makes for the red-hot Buffalo Sabres.
Last year after their first 24 games of the season, the Sabres were 6-14-4 and the worst-ranked team in TSN's weekly 7-Eleven Power Rankings. Buffalo went on to finish dead last in the overall NHL standings in 2017-18 with just 25 wins and 62 points.
Twenty-four games into the 2018-19 season, the Sabres look like a legitimate playoff contender. They’re 16-6-2 and on a nine-game winning streak – one off their franchise record set in 1983-84 and matched again in 2006-07 – to move up four spots to No. 1 this week in our 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 Sabres, ranked No. 24 in our second Power Rankings of the season, could turn out to be this season’s version of the 2017-18 Colorado Avalanche. The Avs finished dead last in 2016-17 and then made the playoffs last year. The Sabres also look like a team that’s on track to reach the postseason (for the first time in eight seasons) after finishing dead last the previous season. They’re getting first-rate goaltending from Carter Hutton (11-6-1, .919 save percentage) and Linus Ullmark (5-0-1, .926 SV%) while the additions of No. 1 draft pick Rasmus Dahlin and former Carolina Hurricane Jeff Skinner (also a former No. 1 pick and Calder Trophy winner) have complemented captain Jack Eichel, who leads the team in scoring with 28 points.
The Nashville Predators remain stuck in the No. 2 spot followed by the Tampa Bay Lightning who stay in the No. 3 position after both teams went 3-1 last week. The Toronto Maple Leafs fall out of top spot to No. 4 after going 2-2 last week while the Colorado Avalanche round out our panel’s top five, moving up seven places following a four-game winning streak.
Canada’s best teams this week include the No. 4 Leafs, the Winnipeg Jets at No. 9, the Calgary Flames at No. 10 following a 3-1 week and the No. 13 Montreal Canadiens, who slip four spots after going 0-2-2 last week as their struggles in overtime continue.
The No. 21 Edmonton Oilers climb five places from a week ago after going 1-1-1 in California under new head coach Ken Hitchcock. Meanwhile, the No. 27 Vancouver Canucks fall seven spots after a 1-3 week despite finally snapping an eight-game losing skid. The Ottawa Senators own the biggest dive of the week, dropping 11 spots to No. 28 from No. 17 after giving up 19 goals in three straight losses.
Making the biggest leap of the week are the Pittsburgh Penguins, who jump 11 spots to No. 19 from second last a week ago after going 2-0-2 thanks in part to Sidney Crosby returning to the lineup with three points in a 5-1 victory over Dallas.
Besides the Canucks and Senators, the other basement dwellers in the NHL this week include the No. 29 Arizona Coyotes, who were ranked No. 12 just three weeks ago but have again run into scoring problems, the disappointing St. Louis Blues at No. 30, and the Los Angeles Kings dead last at No. 31 for a fourth consecutive week.
1. Buffalo Sabres
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RECORD16-6-2
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LAST 109-1-0
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LAST WEEK5
Nine straight wins is one shy of the Sabres' record set in 1983-84 and matched in 2006-07. Carter Hutton has won seven of the games in net and team points leader Jack Eichel has 11 points (1-10-11).
2. Nashville Predators
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RECORD17-6-1
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LAST 106-3-1
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LAST WEEK2
The Predators have won six in a row at home outscoring the opposition 22-9, but after starting the season with eight straight road wins they’ve lost four in row (0-3-1) away from Nashville.
3. Tampa Bay Lightning
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RECORD17-6-1
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LAST 107-3-0
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LAST WEEK3
Louis Domingue has started all seven games since Andrei Vasilevskiy was injured and has a 5-2 record. Providing some scoring punch with 14 points in the seven games is Nikita Kucherov.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs
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RECORD16-8-0
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LAST 107-3-0
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LAST WEEK1
Andreas Johnsson scored three goals before the game reached the 13-minute mark in a 6-0 win over Philadelphia to give Toronto their fourth straight home win (outscoring opponents 19-4).
5. Colorado Avalanche
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RECORD13-6-4
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Last 106-2-2
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LAST WEEK12
They’re on a four-game winning streak and a seven-game point streak (6-0-1) following a five-game skid (0-4-1). NHL points leader Mikko Rantanen (10-28-38) leads with 14 points in the seven games.
6. Minnesota Wild
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RECORD14-7-2
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LAST 106-4-0
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LAST WEEK8
The Wild blew a three-goal lead in the third to Ottawa but managed two late goals to pull out a 6-4 win. Against Winnipeg they went into the third period trailing 2-0, but scored four goals for a 4-2 victory.
7. Washington Capitals
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RECORD13-7-3
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LAST 107-3-0
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LAST WEEK16
Prior to their current five-game winning streak, Washington’s longest this season was just two games. The top scorer during the streak is previously suspended Tom Wilson with eight points (3-5-8).
8. Boston Bruins
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RECORD13-6-4
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LAST 106-2-2
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LAST WEEK7
The Bruins are battling through injuries, most notably to Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara. Helping out offensively has been Jake DeBrusk, who has seven goals in the team’s last nine games.
9. Winnipeg Jets
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RECORD13-7-2
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LAST 106-3-1
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LAST WEEK6
It’s been all Patrik Laine all the time for November. His team-record five goals against St. Louis gave him a team record 16 for the month, the most in a month in the NHL since 1996-97 (Jaromir Jagr).
10. Calgary Flames
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RECORD14-9-1
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LAST 106-4-0
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LAST WEEK13
David Rittich (8-2-0, 930 SV%) sparked the Flames to three straight wins before they were shut out 2-0 by Vegas. Mike Smith (6-7-1, .883 SV%) got his first win since Nov. 1 against Arizona Sunday.
11. Columbus Blue Jackets
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RECORD13-8-2
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LAST 106-2-2
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LAST WEEK4
The Blue Jackets played in three 4-2 games last week – one win, two losses. Cam Atkinson leads the team in November goals with nine in 11 games including a current seven-game goal streak.
12. San Jose Sharks
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RECORD12-8-4
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LAST 105-4-1
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LAST WEEK11
Aaron Dell’s last four starts have all been in shutout games - two wins, two losses. The two wins were at home, the two losses on the road. The Sharks have been outscored 18-3 in their last three road games.
13. Montreal Canadiens
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RECORD11-8-5
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LAST 103-4-3
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LAST WEEK9
A four-game losing streak (0-2-2) highlighted Montreal’s inability to win in overtime. They’ve won both shootouts they’ve been involved this season but have lost all five overtime games.
14. New York Islanders
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RECORD12-8-2
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LAST 105-4-1
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LAST WEEK15
15. Dallas Stars
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RECORD12-10-2
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LAST 104-5-1
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LAST WEEK10
The goal scoring has been feast or famine. In their last 11 games they’ve scored one goal six times and two goals in another. In the remaining four games they’ve scored six goals twice and four goals twice.
16. New York Rangers
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RECORD12-10-2
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LAST 106-3-1
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LAST WEEK14
The Rangers have lost two in a row but that’s after an impressive 9-1-1 run. Also ending for New York was a seven-game home winning streak during which time they outscored their opponents 26-10.
17. Vegas Golden Knights
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RECORD12-12-1
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LAST 106-4-0
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LAST WEEK24
Marc-Andre Fleury is trying to turn a mediocre Golden Knights season around on his own. He has consecutive shutouts, has four in the last five home games, and leads the league with five.
18. Carolina Hurricanes
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RECORD11-9-3
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LAST 105-4-1
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LAST WEEK19
Former Leafs backup Curtis McElhinney (6-2-0) earned wins over his old team and Florida last week while starter Scott Darling (2-4-1) lost the Hurricanes' other game – to the Islanders on Saturday.
19. Pittsburgh Penguins
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RECORD9-8-5
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LAST 103-5-2
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LAST WEEK30
Sidney Crosby returned to the lineup with three points to give the Penguins just their second win in 11 games. Jake Guentzel followed that up with a hat trick and Pittsburgh has a four-game point streak.
20. Detroit Red Wings
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RECORD10-10-3
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LAST 106-3-1
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LAST WEEK18
The Red Wings ended a 6-1-0 stretch with a 3-1 loss in Washington followed by a shootout loss to Buffalo. Top goal scorer for the month is Andreas Athanasiou with six, despite missing three games.
21. Edmonton Oilers
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RECORD10-11-2
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LAST 102-7-1
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LAST WEEK26
Coach Ken Hitchcock made a successful debut for the Oilers after Todd McLellan was fired last week, defeating the Sharks in OT in San Jose and then earning a point in an overtime loss to Anaheim.
22. Anaheim Ducks
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RECORD10-10-5
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LAST 104-4-2
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LAST WEEK27
It may not seem like much but a two-game winning streak and a four-game point streak has been a big deal to the Ducks this season and it's their best run since starting the season at 3-0-1.
23. Chicago Blackhawks
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RECORD9-10-5
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LAST 103-5-2
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LAST WEEK22
They needed a late tying goal against Florida and then an OT goal to end an eight-game (0-7-1) road skid. On Sunday night they traded Nick Schmaltz to Arizona for Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini.
24. Philadelphia Flyers
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RECORD10-11-2
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LAST 104-4-2
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LAST WEEK21
The Flyers fired GM Ron Hextall on Monday, but will it fix their goaltending woes? Calvin Pickard earned a shutout over the Rangers and then allowed four goals on six shots against Toronto Saturday.
25. New Jersey Devils
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RECORD9-10-3
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LAST 103-5-2
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LAST WEEK28
The Devils continue to be the league’s best team at home where they have lost just once in regulation (7-1-3). They also continue to be the worst team on the road where they have a 2-9-0 record.
26. Florida Panthers
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RECORD8-9-4
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LAST 105-4-1
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LAST WEEK23
Former Senator Mike Hoffman, who leads the Panthers in scoring, had his point streak snapped at 17 games on Friday but scored a goal and added an assist the next day in an OT loss to Chicago.
27. Vancouver Canucks
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RECORD11-13-2
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LAST 102-7-1
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LAST WEEK20
An eight-game losing streak finally came to an end with a 4-2 win over Los Angeles Saturday. During the skid the Canucks were outscored 30-13. Five losses were on the road and two were at home.
28. Ottawa Senators
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RECORD9-11-3
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LAST 104-5-1
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LAST WEEK17
The good news is that they scored 13 goals in their last three games. The bad news is that they allowed 19 and lost all three. On the season they rank third with 3.61 goals for, and last with 4.35 goals against.
29. Arizona Coyotes
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RECORD9-11-2
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LAST 102-6-2
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LAST WEEK25
A light recent schedule for the Coyotes has also been light on goal scoring again. In their last six games they’ve scored a total of eight goals and haven’t scored more than two in any one of them.
30. St. Louis Blues
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RECORD8-11-3
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LAST 104-6-0
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LAST WEEK29
31. Los Angeles Kings
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RECORD8-14-1
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LAST 104-6-0
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LAST WEEK31
Call-up goalie Calvin Petersen gave the team some hope when he shut out St. Louis 2-0, but it was quickly back to normal when the Kings lost their next two 7-3 and 4-2, both at home.