NHL Power Rankings: Jets soar into top spot, Sharks still on the bottom

The Sharks are the first team this season to allow more than 200 goals – they’re up to 206 after a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday. San Jose’s minus-62 goal differential is also a League-worst. It will be interesting to see how prized rookie Macklin Celebrini does without Mikael Granlund, who was traded with Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars on Saturday. The No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft had a goal and an assist Tuesday in a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in his first game since the trade.

The rebuild is going slowly in Chicago, where the Blackhawks will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth straight season. Connor Bedard is the only player with more than 35 points and there’s not a plus player who’s played more than four games. The Blackhawks play hard, as they showed in a 4-3 nationally televised overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, a game they trailed 3-1 in the third period — but they also demonstrated there’s a long way to go before they can even think about making the playoffs.

The ship is almost sunk in Nashville, where a five-game losing streak during which they’ve been outscored 20-8 has all but assured the Predators of an early summer vacation. Defenseman Roman Josi broke a franchise record Monday by playing in his 957th regular-season game. Unfortunately for the Predators, their captain is on track for his worst season in nearly a decade and is minus-26, tied for the second-worst in the NHL.

It’s likely a case of “too little, too late,” but the Sabres won all three of their games last week, extending their winning streak to four and at least giving themselves a glimmer of hope in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Tage Thompson, the NHL Second Star for the week ending Sunday, didn’t play in a 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, two days after he was leveled by a late hit from New Jersey Devils forward Stefan Noesen.

Not much has gone right for the Kraken, who are all but certain to miss the playoffs for the third time in four seasons since entering the NHL in 2022. But one thing that has is the pre-Christmas trade that brought forward Kaapo Kraken from the New York Rangers. The No. 2 pick in the 2019 draft has five goals and 17 points in 22 games with Seattle and has fit well with 2023 Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers.

Nothing has been going right for the Flyers, who were shut out three times in a span of five days. They finally broke the drought Tuesday in Utah, only to cough up a third-period lead and lose on a goal scored with less than 1 second remaining in overtime, wasting a brilliant 40-save effort by Samuel Ersson. Philadelphia needs some wins in a hurry to avoid dropping out of the playoff race.

The Penguins aren’t out of playoff contention. But GM Kyle Dubas is already looking to the future, acquiring a top-13 protected first-round pick this year, as well as other assets, on Friday when they traded defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor to the Vancouver Canucks. More concerning is that Sidney Crosby missed practice Wednesday and is being evaluated for an upper-body injury.

If only the Ducks could score. They are one game below NHL .500 despite being last in the League in scoring (135 goals) and have wasted a lot of good performances by goaltenders Lukas Dostal and John Gibson. They’ve won their past two games despite scoring just five goals because their goalies have been exceptional. Gibson was the game’s First Star in a 2-1 home win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, two days after Dostal helped the Ducks rally from two goals down for a 3-2 win against Montreal.

The standings say the Blues are six points out of the second wild card in the West. But the fact that they haven’t won more than two games in a row all season tells a different message — one that says they should be looking toward next season. Tuesday was a perfect example: St. Louis trailed Edmonton 1-0 after two periods, scored twice but then allowed a sixth-attacker goal and lost in overtime. The lost point is more damaging than the one they got with the OT loss was helpful.

Utah played “Beat The Clock” on Tuesday, getting an overtime goal by Dylan Guenther with 0.7 seconds remaining to defeat the Flyers 3-2 and end a five-game losing streak. Guenther scored twice and assisted on Utah’s other goal in his return after missing 12 games due to a lower-body injury. He’s tied for the team lead in goals (18) despite playing just 41 of their 53 games.

The highlight of the Rangers’ week came when they ended a three-game losing streak by defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday; backup goalie Jonathan Quick got the victory and became the first U.S.-born goaltender (and 15th overall) to win 400 NHL games. Center J.T. Miller, acquired from the Canucks last Friday, had two goals and two assists in his first two games back with the team drafted him No. 15 in 2011.

A 1-5-1 slide that includes two losses during a three-game California trip this week dropped the Canadiens into 13th place in the East, five points out of the second wild card with four teams in the middle. Montreal goes home for its annual Super Bowl weekend back-to-back, hosting the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. The Canadiens are struggling defensively, having allowed 28 goals during the seven-game slump.

New York continues to pile up points and lose key players. The Islanders won three of four games last week despite losing first-line forward Mathew Barzal and defenseman Scott Mayfield to injuries during a 3-2 overtime win at Tampa Bay on Saturday. Half of the defensemen who dressed for the Islanders over the weekend weren’t on the team two weeks ago; one of them, Tony DeAngelo, scored the OT winner against the Lightning.

The Bruins missed a chance to jump into the first wild card in the East on Wednesday, but they couldn’t hold a third-period lead and lost 3-2 to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The Bruins have yet to win a game in regulation away from TD Garden since the Christmas break — they are 0-8-1 in their past nine road games and have dropped to 9-15-3 away from home.

The Blue Jackets dropped out of a wild-card spot with a 3-2 loss at Buffalo on Tuesday. But much more damaging was the loss of their top goal-scorer, Kirill Marchenko, who sustained a broken jaw when he was hit by an errant puck while sitting on the bench during the second period of a 5-3 loss at Dallas. Not only does Marchenko lead Columbus with 21 goals, he’s tops in the NHL in plus-minus at plus-31.

Thatcher Demko is starting to look like the No. 1 goalie he was before a knee problem he sustained almost a year ago. He was sharp on Tuesday in his first shutout of the season, a 3-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Arena. The Canucks shook up their roster last Friday by sending center J.T. Miller to the Rangers, landed defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor from the Penguins — and on Wednesday signed Pettersson to a six-year, $33 million contract.

The Flames and Canucks are dead even in the race for the second wild card in the West after Calgary’s 6-3 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Their next three games are also at Scotiabank Saddledome — and they could really use to win all three, considering that they’ll have just 10 home games remaining after that. Calgary has a six-game road trip that begins Feb. 25 and a four-game swing through the New York area and Toronto in mid-March.

The Red Wings had a week to remember, when they swept a four-game trip through Western Canada and Seattle, where they won 5-4 in a shootout on Tuesday. Detroit has won seven in a row for the second time since Todd McLellan took over as coach during the Christmas break. Goalie Cam Talbot has excelled during the winning streak; he’s 5-0-0 and allowed just nine goals.

The Senators, who’ve worked their way into third place in the Atlantic Division, survived the six-week absence of starting goalie Linus Ullmark, who returned Tuesday and took the L in a 4-3 road loss to the Lightning. Ottawa gets another shot at the Bolts on Thursday in Tampa and concludes its pre-4 Nations schedule Saturday against the Florida Panthers, wrapping up a four-game trip.

The Lightning find themselves in a dogfight for a playoff spot, something they couldn’t have expected a few weeks ago. That’s what made their 4-3 win over the Senators so important — it moved them back into the second wild card in the East. The Lightning host Ottawa again on Thursday before a weekend back-to-back on the road against the Red Wings and Canadiens. It’s not impossible that goalie Brandon Halverson, who made his lone NHL appearance seven years ago, could start one of those games after being called up from AHL Syracuse on Tuesday.

Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood has shown why the Avalanche were so happy to get him in a trade with the Sharks in December — and why they wasted no time signing him to a five-year contract. Blackwood posted back-to-back shutouts at home against the Blues and Flyers, and played well but got no offensive help in a 3-0 loss at Vancouver on Tuesday in the opener of a five-game trip that will keep them away from Ball Arena until they open a seven-game homestand Feb. 26.

At 16-3-1, the Kings are one of the League’s best home teams. That good for them, since a 6-3 win against the Canadiens on Wednesday began a season-ending stretch that will see them play 22 of their final 32 games at Crypto.com Arena. It followed a 4-2 win at Carolina on Saturday that prevented a winless road trip. Scoring continues to be an issue — Wednesday marked the first time the Kings scored as many as six goals in a home game since Oct. 30.

New Jersey is just 7-8-3 since the Christmas break and blew a two-goal lead before defeating the Penguins 3-2 in a shootout on Tuesday. Nico Daws took over after Jake Allen allowed four goals in two periods of a 4-3 loss at Buffalo on Sunday, then got the start — and the win — in Pittsburgh. Don’t be surprised if Daws, who was 19-22-1 with the Devils during pieces of the past two seasons, gets more playing time until Jacob Markstrom returns from a knee injury.

The Panthers moved back into first place in the Atlantic Division by sweeping a three-game homestand before losing 6-3 at Washington on Tuesday — one day after the 2024 Stanley Cup champs were honored by President Donald Trump at the White House. To stay on top, the Panthers will have to play better than the 10-8-1 mark they’ve put up since the Christmas break. The best news for Florida is that Matthew Tkachuk takes a four-game goal-scoring streak into St. Louis on Thursday.

Marc-Andre Fleury’s 4-0 shutout in his last career game in Montreal was one of the most emotional nights of the Quebec native’s NHL career. It was also the last time the Wild has scored a goal — they lost 6-0 at Ottawa on Saturday and 3-0 at Boston on Tuesday. Minnesota has home games against the Hurricanes and Islanders before the break — but will have to play better at Xcel Energy Center, where they are 11-12-1.

Maybe the Maple Leafs needed to get far away from Toronto to give their offense a spark. After three straight losses (two at Scotiabank Arena) in which they scored once in each game, the Maple Leafs pumped in 10 goals in sweeping two games in Alberta. They visit Seattle and Vancouver before the break, then play seven of their first nine games after play resumes away from home. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — the Maple Leafs are 13-8-2 on the road.

Not that long ago, Vegas was first in the rankings and seemingly on a glide path toward winning the Pacific Division. But a 3-8-3 slide that includes back-to-back losses to the Rangers and Islanders in the first half of a four-game trip has dropped them behind the Oilers. Offense continues to be a problem, and the loss to the Isles was especially frustrating — the Golden Knights dominated play and had a 34-14 advantage in shots but lost 2-1.

The ‘Canes are still waiting for Mikko Rantanen to produce like the 100-point scorer he was in the previous two seasons with the Avalanche. Rantanen has one goal and one assist in five games since coming to Carolina from Colorado on Jan. 24. Carolina is 2-2-1 since the trade, including consecutive losses to the Kings and Jets. The Hurricanes live up to their name at Lenovo Center (20-5-1) but are more like tropical storms when they’re away from home (12-12-3).

The Stars began a stretch of six road games that will keep them away from American Airlines Arena for 26 days with a 2-1 loss at Anaheim on Tuesday. Dallas finishes its pre-break schedule with games at Los Angeles and San Jose, then picks up with a three-game Eastern swing. GM Jim Nill brought in reinforcements last week, adding Granlund and Ceci from San Jose to compensate for injuries to forward Tyler Seguin and defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Nils Lundqvist.

Nothing makes Leon Draisaitl happier than seeing the Blackhawks at the other end of the ice. Draisaitl scored his NHL-leading 38th goal and had an assist in a 4-3 overtime win at Chicago on Wednesday, extending his point streak against them to 18 games — the longest active streak by any player against another team. He’s on pace for an NHL career-high 57 goals and 123 points. It would be his sixth straight 100-point season (excluding the 56-game COVID-shortened 2020-21 season).

Alex Ovechkin’s quest to overtake Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record is getting some help from his ability to hit the empty net. Ovi has scored six of his 25 goals this season with the opposing goalie on the bench — one short of Rantanen, the League leader. Ovechkin has 63 empty-netters among his 878 career goals, the most of anyone in NHL history and seven more than Gretzky, who’s second with 56. The Great One is the all-time leader in empty-net points with 85; Ovi is third with 79.

The Jets have allowed just 13 goals during their seven-game winning streak, not surprising since their 2.38 goals-against per game is the lowest in the NHL. The best news is that their 3-0 win against the Hurricanes on Tuesday came with backup goalie Eric Comrie in the net. The better Comrie plays — he’s 5-7-1 but has a 2.58 goals-against average and .912 save percentage — the more confidence coach Scott Arniel can have when it comes to giving Vezina Trophy favorite Connor Hellebuyck an extra night off now and then to keep him fresher for the playoffs.