LA Kings

The LA Kings are surging up the standings, the Golden Knights are struggling, and the losses are piling up in Seattle.

Starting this week, we’re going to be adding each team’s MoneyPuck playoff odds to their section.

8. Seattle Kraken (16-34-5)

Last week: 8

Playoff odds: 0%

An 0-3-1 week extended Seattle’s winless streak to seven games. The Kraken will turn the page on an ugly month of February in which they went 2-8-1.

At least Mark Giordano’s been raising his trade value lately. He scored two shorthanded goals last week.

This week: VS NSH, @ WSH, @ CAR

7. San Jose Sharks (24-23-6)

Last week: 7

Playoff odds: 2%

The Sharks played a pair of shootout games to begin the week, losing to the Anaheim Ducks and beating the New York Islanders. Then after a 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, they knocked off the Kraken by a 3-1 score on Sunday for just their second win in their last 10 games.

Scott Reedy and Jonah Gadjovich each scored their first NHL goals in Sunday’s victory.

This week: @ VGK, VS NSH, @ ANA

6. Anaheim Ducks (25-21-9)

Last week: 5

Playoff odds: 12.6%

After starting the week with a 4-3 shootout win over the Sharks, the Ducks were outscored by a total of 8-1 in losses to the LA Kings and the Islanders. If Anaheim falls further out of the playoff race over the next few weeks and decides to sell at the trade deadline, at least Rickard Rakell helped to raise his value with a two goals plus the shootout winner against San Jose last Tuesday.

This week: VS BOS, VS VGK, VS SJ

5. Vancouver Canucks (26-22-6)

Last week: 6

Playoff odds: 15.5%

Here come the Canucks?

Vancouver moves up a spot in our rankings for the second straight week. They outscored the Kraken, Calgary Flames, and New York Rangers by a combined margin of 17-5, winning all three games. They’ve now won six of their last eight.

They ended Calgary’s winning streak at 10 games in dominant fashion last Thursday. Elias Pettersson, Bo Horvat, and J.T. Miller each scored twice in a 7-1 stomping.

This week: @ NJ, @ NYI, @ TOR

4. Edmonton Oilers (29-21-3)

Last week: 4

Playoff odds: 78.8%

Last week was the Oilers’ turn to go through the Southeast road trip from hell — consecutive games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes, who own three of the four best records in the league.

They only came away with two points from a 4-3 win over Florida on Saturday, but they had respectable efforts in the other two games, a 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay and a 2-1 loss to Carolina. All in all, those games could’ve gone worse, and the schedule gets lighter for them this week.

Derek Ryan, of all people, scored a hat trick to lead the way in the win over the Panthers.

This week: @ PHI, @ CHI, VS MTL

3. Vegas Golden Knights (29-20-4)

Last week: 2

Playoff odds: 79.8%

Vegas was supposed to run away with the Pacific Division this year. Instead, as the calendar turns to March, they’ve fallen into third place both in the standings and in our rankings.

After a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Friday, the Golden Knights were sunk by a 26-second stretch in the third period of Saturday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, in which the Avalanche scored twice to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead that would hold up as the final score. The Knights are just 1-4-1 over their last six games, and don’t look now, but another bad week could see them fall out of a playoff spot entirely.

At least Chandler Stephenson may be finding his scoring touch again. After a seven-game point drought, he has two goals and an assist over the last three games.

This week: VS SJ, VS BOS, @ ANA, VS OTT

2. LA Kings (29-17-7)

Last week: 3

Playoff odds: 95.4%

LA’s winning streak is up to five games now. After a late goal by Viktor Arvidsson last Wednesday helped them beat the Coyotes 3-2, the Kings were in complete control over back-to-back victories against the Ducks and Islanders.

Adrian Kempe scored twice in Friday’s 4-1 win over Anaheim, his third multi-goal game in four contests. Kempe has a shot to become the Kings’ first 40-goal scorer since Luc Robitaille in the 1993-94 season. With 29 games to go, he needs 15 more goals. If that sounds like a lot, he has 25 in 50 so far, which puts him roughly on pace to do it.

This week: VS BOS, @ DAL, @ CBJ, @ BUF

1. Calgary Flames (31-14-6)

Last week: 1

Playoff odds; 99.8%

Elias Lindholm put the Flames ahead with under a minute to go in regulation and Tyler Toffoli added an empty-netter to give the Flames a 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets last Monday and extend their winning streak to 10 games.

That winning streak crashed and burned in Vancouver, but Calgary bounced back with a 7-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. They have a three-point lead in the division and at least two games in hand on every team.

This week: @ MIN, VS MTL, @ COL

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