1. Tampa Bay
2. Nashville
3. Las Vegas
4. Minnesota
5. Boston
Beware the surging Wild. Minnesota are 7-1-2 in there last ten and look like a force to be reckoned with in the central. Meanwhile Vegas drops after back to back tough losses to Los Angeles, is the magic starting to wear off? If Ryan Mcdonagh wasn’t traded to the Lightning the Preds would be the best team in hockey right now. That team is electric to watch.
6. San Jose
7. Philadelphia
8. Dallas
9. Toronto
10. Winnipeg
San Jose and Philly suddenly went from middling teams to looking like sneaky contenders in the past few weeks. Dallas has slowly risen into the playoffs but shouldn’t be ignored. Winnipeg falls only because it just cant seem to keep up with the big boys in the central when it plays them.
11. Washington
12. Los Angeles
13. New Jersey
14. Pittsburgh
15. Anaheim
Washington has played well but occasionally loses games they shouldn’t and so they fall out of the top ten. A team on the rise right now is Los Angeles, they look like they could make a real stretch run here to close the season. Losing Matt Murray really hurts the Penguins, hopefully he’s back come playoff time, and yes I have no doubt the Penguins will make the playoffs.
16. Colorado
17. Calgary
18. Columbus
19. Saint Louis
20. Carolina
21. Florida
22. Detroit
23. Edmonton
24. New York Islanders
25. Chicago
26. Montreal
27. New York Rangers
28. Arizona
29. Buffalo
30. Vancouver
31. Ottowa