The NHL’s western conference was the first to have every playoff spot clinched. Seeding was final after last weekend. Many wonder if either of last year’s conference finals participants can replicate their success and represent the west in the conference championship. No western team wants to go two years in a row without winning the Stanley Cup. President’s Trophy winners Winnipeg Jets improved this season but drew a difficult first round opponent. Los Angeles and Vegas have the capabilities to make deep playoff runs.Finally, the Colorado Avalanche have returned to their Stanley Cup champion selves after serious roster moves at the trade deadline. Only four teams will advance to the second round. Time to break down which four have the best chance.
#6 Edmonton Oilers v. #4 Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles’ 5-0 shutout win in Edmonton last Monday could be a preview for what happens in this first round series.
For the fourth year in a row, the Kings and Oilers face off in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Edmonton won the previous three matchups in seven, six and five games. This time Los Angeles is in the best position to win the series.
The Kings wound up with the best home record in the NHL and coach Jim Hiller has improved the roster’s playing style. Hiller’s decision to have a five forward look after the acquisition of forward Andrei Kuzmenko is brilliant and makes Los Angeles nearly unstoppable.
The Oilers have been inconsistent since Four Nations ended, and the health of star players has been their biggest issue. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm will miss the entire first round. Forwards Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane won’t be fully healthy. By contrast, the Kings’ five forward rotation preserves the health of defensemen Drew Doughty and Joel Edmundson. Los Angeles’ success coupled with the Oilers continuous struggles means the Kings should finally get past their rivals into the second round.
Prediction: Kings win series 4-2
#5 Colorado Avalanche v. #3 Dallas Stars
If Dallas has any chance of winning this series, depth players like defenseman Thomas Harley (55) have to play their best, all-around hockey.
Two months ago, we saw this as the best first round series in any conference. Dallas went all-in at the trade deadline for former Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen. The Stars’ seven game losing streak has them in panic mode and coach Peter DeBoer has no answers.
Meanwhile, the Avalanche are back to their dangerous selves and got some extra rest after a Sunday win in Anaheim. Their new goaltending duo of Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood will fluster Dallas’ already frustrated offense and power-play units. Colorado also has better coaching and higher confidence.
Prediction: Avalanche win series 4-1
#7 Minnesota Wild v. #2 Vegas Golden Knights
Forward Matt Boldy’s played more games without scoring depth than he probably imagined and wanted to this year.
Many believe this series has the potential to be the NHL’s best and longest in the first round. As goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury’s legendary career draws to a close, the Wild finally have all their star players back and healthy for the playoffs. Unfortunately, they drew one of Fleury’s former teams for the first round. Vegas knows how to beat Minnesota in many ways. Unless the Golden Knights suffer serious injuries, the Wild don’t have a chance of winning this series. Vegas has a lot of former champions, scoring depth, shutdown defensemen and great coaches. These veterans won’t be phased by Minnesota’s last hurrah for Fleury, a goaltender they originally acquired in their 2017 expansion draft.
Prediction: Golden Knights win series 4-1
#8 St. Louis Blues v. #1 Winnipeg Jets
2025 Jordan Binnington is playing like the legend he was in 2019. That’s bad news for Winnipeg.
We’ve been here before. Of course the President’s Trophy winning Jets drew the most challenging first round opponent for any team. Coach Jim Montgomery made sure St. Louis clamped down on defense and improved on both offense and the power-play. This Blues team is eerily similar to the 2018-19 championship team that also faced Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs.
The Jets won the regular season series but they’ll be without forward Nikolaj Ehlers for most of the first round. Winnipeg also has a lot of pressure to win a series after last year’s jaw-dropping collapse against Colorado. St. Louis has no pressure and is riding all kinds of highs after early season struggles. If that isn’t daunting enough, the superb play of Four Nations champion starting goaltender Jordan Binnington has been stellar. Binnington’s aggressive style will further frustrate the Jets offense and special teams deep into the series.
Western conference upset prediction of the first round: Blues win series 4-3
Regular season western conference playoffs prediction record: 6-2
Nashville starting goaltender Juuse Saros takes a stick to the face in a shutout loss to Calgary earlier in the month.
General manager Barry Trotz had a hard decision to make on March eighth earlier this year: should he trade Nashville’s core talent after a hot winning streak or keep everyone together and try for a deep run in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a hard decision. The Predators were one of the NHL’s most dangerous teams last spring and pushed well-coached Vancouver to a thrilling six game series in the first round of the postseason.
Many serious viewers believed Nashville would be one of the top western conference teams when the season began in October. They signed Tampa Bay’s franchise scoring leader and long tenured captain Steven Stamkos and former Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault. They added defenseman Brady Skjei after trading Ryan McDonagh back to the Lightning. Barry Trotz was already a contender for general manager of the year before the Predators played a regular season game.
The free agency period could be the highlight of Nashville’s year. The Predators were one of two teams to not win a game until the end of October. They’ve won the same number of games in November as they’ve been shutout. While the team’s leading goal scorer is Filip Forsberg, the acquisition of Jonathan Marchessault is a dud. Marchessault has three goals and seven assists after two months. This is a forward who was the core of many successful Golden Knights offenses once they grabbed him in the 2017 expansion draft.
The former Stanley Cup finals MVP isn’t the only one struggling. Former Conn Smythe winner Ryan O’Reilly is having a hard time after last year’s solid season. While O’Reilly and Marchessault both have 12 points as of this writing, at least the former plays better defense. Still, that’s a problem when two of the team’s best signings the last two years went from MVP of a champion winning team to non-existent on offense and the power-play.
This is where most of the struggles are for the Predators. They’re bottom five in goals scored and bottom ten in goals against. No player has gotten double digit goals in almost two months, and former Vezina candidate Juuse Saros is giving up an average two and a half goals a game. Part of Saros’ issues stem from doing too much when the offense can’t score. Five-on-five has been this team’s worst area, and it doesn’t look like a one or two month slump. Captain Roman Josi said at the beginning of November to FanSided’s Nashville page Predlines that, “there’s a hard time breaking out. We’re having a hard time on the backcheck, we’re not playing as a five-man unit and we’re not playing as a team right now. It’s almost like every guy is on their own page.”
This leads us back to Trotz and how he re-tooled the roster the last year and a half. Sports journalist Scott Maxwell wrote an honest opinion on why the Predators are struggling this early. He believes Barry Trotz spending just under $31 million for super stars was the “Plan A” the franchise had in mind. That’s one third of the team’s salary cap before a regular season game. Maxwell also addresses free agent signings the year before and how Nashville needs more center depth than star scorers.
Finally, many say this is also on coach Andrew Brunette. The calls to fire Brunette are constant, but he’s lucky Nashville is unlike many NHL teams where they don’t fire coaches just because there’s a slump. The Predators front office will give Andrew Brunette as much time as possible to fix the ongoing issues throughout the season. If this is just a slow start, there should be an uptick in production. Unfortunately for him, there isn’t much time left until 2025 begins.
Every game in the NHL is hard, and Nashville’s schedule is rife with playoff bound opponents. December has Toronto, the Rangers, Dallas, Colorado, Los Angeles, Winnipeg, Minnesota and a resurgent St. Louis. Barry Trotz could make some harder decisions before the next trade deadline if the Predators are just as bad these last two months.
The Predators struggle to score especially at close range. If Nashville wants to improve, they’ll have to play better offense and score more on second chance opportunities.
Time for the first power rankings of the season. These show where all 32 teams objectively stand going back to the rankings from last season. Some teams will have tiebreakers based off of how they’d perform on a neutral site.
#32 Chicago Blackhawks (final ranking last season: 31)
It shouldn’t be a surprise the worst team in the NHL is the one that can’t score and is second to last in assists. It should surprise viewers that they’re bottom five in shots on the power-play at 0.9. It’s an early season warning when an offense struggles to find time to get shots on net with a one man advantage.
#31 Montreal Canadiens (final ranking last season: 28)
RG’s Marco D’Amico reported veteran Stanley Cup winning defenseman David Savard could be traded before the March deadline. It’s possible Savard gets dealt before the new year if Montreal’s defense continues the downward spiral.
#30 Anaheim Ducks (final ranking last season: 30)
If there was one play that sums up starting goaltender John Gibson’s career in Anaheim, Friday night’s overtime loss to Buffalo had one. Gibson made a highlight reel save against two Sabres scorers and no help. However the save bounced to the front of the net and forward Jiri Kulich scored his second goal of the season up high when John Gibson was sitting in front of the net. No defender came close to stopping Kulich’s shot and there was no way Gibson could make another save given how he made a spectacular one not even five seconds before the game winner.
#29 San Jose Sharks (final ranking last season: 32)
San Jose’s 7-8 since their second, league record-setting nine straight losses to start the season. The Sharks have also beaten playoff hopefuls the last month and play hard. This could be a one month resurgence, but it’s another reminder there are no easy wins in the NHL.
#28 Pittsburgh Penguins (last season’s final ranking: 24)
When both Stu Grimson and Dave Reid subtly suggested on NHL Network for the first time it was time for Pittsburgh and general manager Kyle Dubas to move in a different direction on coach Mike Sullivan, it was like watching a marathon runner reach the final mile on a race. It’s a matter of time before the Penguins decide to let Sullivan go and bring in a fresh face. The big decision the organization must decide before Sullivan goes is what they should do with the roster. As Mike Johnson said not even 24 hours after, Sidney Crosby must be involved. If that means Crosby wants a trade, then it’s time for a re-build.
#27 Columbus Blue Jackets (final ranking last season: 29)
Columbus will be a dark-horse playoff contender. They already have impressive wins against Colorado, Toronto, Edmonton, Boston (where coach Jim Montgomery was fired after the loss), Carolina and a high-scoring thriller over Tampa Bay. Coach Dean Evason’s getting top ten league scoring with players who wouldn’t make first or second lines for most NHL teams.
#26 St. Louis Blues (last season’s final ranking: 17)
#25 Philadelphia Flyers (last season’s final ranking: 16)
Starting goaltender Samuel Ersson landing on injured reserve puts a bottom five scoring defense further behind. Coach John Tortorella is known for getting the most out of defensive depth but even this is too much for him.
#24 Detroit Red Wings (last season’s final ranking: 19)
One could argue Detroit should be lower in the rankings, but the two things stopping that is the amount of roster talent and how worse the other eight teams are. However we can agree head coach Derek Lalonde’s on the hot seat and viewers are impatient with the Red Wings slow start.
#23 Utah Hockey Club (last season’s final ranking as the Arizona Coyotes: 27)
If you take out the four wins out of their first six games, Utah’s lost 11 their last 15. Since the relocation to another state could finally be on everyone’s mind, it’s ok to excuse some of the play for now. Remember, this is mostly a young roster that’s been outmatched most of the last five years.
#22 Buffalo Sabres (last season’s final ranking: 22)
Is it possible the game’s passed coach Lindy Ruff? He’s excellent with improving offenses wherever he’s gone, but the run-and-gun style creates problems for his defenses as many saw in New Jersey. Buffalo is plus three in goal differential and has given up five or more goals to Pittsburgh, Columbus, Florida, Montreal and Philadelphia. The Sabres need a lot of help in net the next five months.
#21 New York Islanders (last season’s final ranking: 20)
General manager Lou Lamoriello’s master plan of transforming the roster with Patrick Roy as coach features one of the worst offenses a viewer could lay eyes on, the second worst power-play in the league, the second worst penalty kill and the most blown third period leads with six. Islander fans shouldn’t be upset though. At least they have the fewest penalty minutes two months into the season with 121.
#20 Ottawa Senators (last season’s final ranking: 26)
One topic under-discussed is how decimated the Senators goaltending depth is again. This time it’s coming from minor league systems. Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg will be relied on the next month or two in every game. Fortunately for them, coach Travis Green is known to stay a few steps ahead and is balancing when their play. This will show how much the defense improves against playoff contending opponents.
#19 Nashville Predators (last season’s final ranking: 10)
Nashville has too much talent to be a bottom ten team in the rankings. This is after all, an objective analysis of where teams stand almost two months into the regular season. There will be few times where an NHL or NBA team skyrockets ten spots or higher.
That said, the Predators do have some positives left they can use to claw back into the playoff race. Special teams is a big reason there’s still hope. Nashville’s great on the power-play and has the best penalty killing unit. While you could argue that won’t last long, ask how confident you’d be with that thought if the Predators start playing as a team.
#18 Seattle Kraken (last season’s final ranking: 25)
Seattle’s painfully mediocre, which is surprising given how general manager Ron Francis’ hiring of Dan Bylsma excited everyone. Still, painfully mediocre is better than what the other 14 teams behind the Kraken have right now.
#17 Calgary Flames (last season’s final ranking: 23)
Calgary fans won’t be happy with this ranking. Yes, they’re ahead of Edmonton, Colorado, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Dallas. However, this is an objective ranking. There’s no debate Dallas and Los Angeles are complete teams. The Oilers, Avalanche and Canucks will also have winning streaks at some point because of scoring depth, talent and coaching. When that happens, there’s not much leading scorers Rasmus Andersson, Matt Coronato, MacKenzie Weegar and Andrei Kuzmenko can do to counter.
#16 Edmonton Oilers (last season’s final ranking: 9)
Still, that doesn’t exempt neither the Oilers nor Avalanche for their early season sputters. Edmonton had an exhausting run to the finals last season and hasn’t played with the same energies similar to when Jay Woodcroft was fired last year. Kris Knoblauch balancing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s minutes could give this team the extra push when spring starts.
#15 Colorado Avalanche (last season’s final ranking: 7)
As for Colorado, they’re in trouble if there’s no solid goaltending. Alexandar Georgiev is struggling and all Avalanche netminders combine for second worst in goals against. This puts more pressure on the the offense to out-score opponents in high scoring games. Don’t be surprised if general manager Joe Sakic is forced to trade for a netminder before Christmas.
#14 New Jersey Devils (last season’s final ranking: 21)
Everything written on this site about the Devils has been accurate. The defensive improvements have made New Jersey a playoff contender nearly two months into the season. Their highlight and earliest test was a five-on-three penalty kill on the road at Florida, November 12th. Not only did they shut down the Panther power-play, they won 4-1. The Devils won again in a higher scoring game two nights later 6-2. The coaching and goaltender changes make New Jersey a top team this season.
#13 Boston Bruins (last season’s final ranking: 5)
General manager Don Sweeney fired Jim Montgomery because of an 8-9-3 start. Montgomery had 41 losses in 184 games. That might be the dumbest move Sweeney’s made in a long time. If Boston continues to play average the next two months, it will be a firesale at the trade deadline.
#12 Vancouver Canucks (last season’s final ranking: 4)
Surprisingly the Canucks are better in net to start the season than many expected. Vancouver must improve their five-on-five play if they want to be taken seriously. That shouldn’t be a problem once winter begins.
#11 Tampa Bay Lightning (last season’s final ranking: 11)
What a difference a healthy Andrei Vasilevskiy makes for Tampa. The Lightning have a top ten defense and have won at least a dozen games over playoff hopefuls because he’s started most of them. Their dominant home win of Winnipeg made Vasilevskiy the fastest goaltender in NHL history to reach 300 wins. If the offense and special teams can have a better December, Tampa Bay could be near the top of the eastern conference standings.
#10 Los Angeles Kings (last season’s final ranking: 14)
This and the next two team placements won’t be popular given how well all three teams have played to start the season. Remember, these are objective rankings. Los Angeles started hot last year and cooled down to where Jim Hiller took over as coach. Right now they’re unpredictable despite the veteran talent. Another month will show us what we can expect of the Kings.
#9 Minnesota Wild (last season’s final ranking: 18)
It’s almost criminal how there’s little conversation on Minnesota. If Winnipeg didn’t have a historic start, everyone would be praising forward Kirill Kaprizov’s play and Filip Gustavsson’s goaltending. Regardless of conversation, the Wild learned last year’s lessons and had a great start in October. Their mental confidence should keep the stellar performances consistent.
#8 Washington Capitals (last season’s final ranking: 15)
After forward Alex Ovechkin surpassed Gordie Howe for second most goals scored all-time, I made the prediction he could be the first NHL player to score 1,000 goals. He’s going to shatter Wayne Gretzky’s goal record this year and get 900 (outside of missing four to six weeks with a fractured fibula). 1,000 is easily the next barrier he gets to and should surpass.
#7 Toronto Maple Leafs (last season’s final ranking: 12)
In some ways center John Tavares is still team captain with Auston Matthews’ slow start to the season. That’s helped the Leafs keep a top ten offense while the defense has injury issues. It’s early, but replacing Sheldon Keefe with Craig Berube at coach looks like a win.
#6 Vegas Golden Knights (last season’s final ranking: 13)
There’s a difference between Vegas and Los Angeles’ hot starts from last year. The Golden Knights grew tired after winning a championship and scraped into the postseason. The Kings sputtered and needed a new coach. Vegas’ start this year is similar to last season’s minus the fatigue. It’s fascinating to see how they haven’t missed a beat after losing Jonathan Marchessault to free agency.
#5 New York Rangers (last season’s final ranking: 1)
New York’s already one of the best teams due to their goaltending tandem of Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick. They’ll be on another level once center Mika Zibanejad gets hot. When that happens, this could be the best team in both the metropolitan and the eastern conference.
#4 Dallas Stars (last season’s final ranking: 2)
I was hesitant to have Dallas back in the playoffs due to how much the central division improved in free agency. The Stars still dominate every side of the puck while younger players like Mason Marchment and Logan Stankoven get better. No one expected Matt Duchene to lead the team with eleven goals two months into the season. All credit goes to coach Peter DeBoer for how he keeps improving the players.
#3 Florida Panthers (last season’s final ranking: 6)
Coach Paul Maurice talked about how the mentality of facing everyone’s best actually came last year after Florida won the President’s trophy. Two months into the season, it’s hard to tell if that’s true. The Panthers have lost four straight but still look like the team to beat. Florida needs more consistency on defense and to stop taking dumb penalties. Only serious injuries and mistakes could derail a deep Panthers postseason run.
#2 Carolina Hurricanes (last season’s final ranking: 3)
During Carolina’s eight game home winning streak, the Hurricanes have:
scored 41 goals (four plus goals in each game during streak)
given up 16 goals on defense
have a 36.4% power-play
have an 85% penalty kill
Good luck to the future road teams playing in Lenovo Center.
#1 Winnipeg Jets (last season’s final ranking: 8)
The top spot shouldn’t surprise anyone. 18 wins in 22 games should make almost every team number one in the rankings. Winnipeg doesn’t have a bad loss after two months. That’s something no other team can brag. Coach Scott Arniel found another gear previous coaches didn’t think possible.
Winnipeg’s Vezina winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck makes one of his 26 saves against the Lightning earlier this month.
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