The 7-Eleven Power Rankings: Predators on the hunt for Stanley

Winners of their last eight games (tying a franchise record), the Nashville Predators look like a team that’s heading to their second straight Stanley Cup final appearance. They’ve rallied from deficits in their last four games and lead the Western Conference.

The Predators, who acquired gritty Ryan Hartman from Chicago at the Feb. 26 trade deadline and lured ex-captain Mike Fisher out of retirement, are the best team 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.

Nashville GM David Poile, who last week became the NHL’s all-time leader in wins for a general manager with 1,320, has concocted the right mix of ingredients for a winning team as the Preds climb to top spot just weeks before the playoffs begin. But he and his team also have to deal with the consistently strong Tampa Bay Lightning, No. 2 in this week’s power rankings. The Bolts bolstered their defence by landing veteran Ryan McDonagh from the New York Rangers at the deadline. They also have the league’s best road record, the top goaltender in Andrei Vasilevskiy – he leads the NHL in victories – and the No. 1 scorer in Nikita Kucherov.

Both the Predators and Lightning are keeping tabs on the No. 3 Boston Bruins, who were ranked 17th in the last TSN power rankings (Dec. 18) when they had a 15-10-5 record. Despite losing No. 1 centre Patrice Bergeron to a broken right foot, the Bruins have been on fire, earning at least a point in 32 of their last 38, and they improved their already stellar lineup by acquiring Rick Nash, Brian Gionta, Nick Holden and Tommy Wingels at the deadline.

Rounding out the top five this week are the No. 4 Winnipeg Jets, who landed Paul Stastny from St. Louis and Joe Morrow from Montreal and have had a winning record in every month of the 2017-18 season, and the Vegas Golden Knights at No. 5. The Golden Knights, the feel-good story of this season, their inaugural season, lead their division by 10 points and sit second in the West with 42 wins and 89 points.

Another team that has surprised many is the Florida Panthers, who were ranked third-last in the last power rankings but have catapulted all the way to No. 8 this week. Finn Aleksander Barkov, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 draft, has 25 goals and 64 points (including nine in his last five) to lead the team in scoring. The Panthers have won six in a row and are vying for a playoff spot. On the flip side, the St. Louis Blues are in freefall. The No. 3-ranked team the week before Christmas, and a former top dog, had the biggest drop since the Dec. 18 rankings to sit at the No. 21 spot this week.

The Jets remain Canada’s highest-ranked team, followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs at No. 7 and the Calgary Flames (No. 20).

Four of the bottom-five teams in this week’s rankings are Canadian: the Montreal Canadiens, No. 27; Edmonton Oilers, No. 28; Vancouver Canucks at No. 29 and the Ottawa Senators, second-last at No. 30. The Arizona Coyotes, who were either dead last or the second-worst team for most of the season, move up to No. 24 after going 8-2-1 in their last 11 games.

The Buffalo Sabres? No shock. They were No. 30 in the last rankings and are the worst team in the NHL this week.