Photo credit: Associated Press/John Froschauer

8. Anaheim Ducks (16-29-5)

Last week: 8

We’re not quite ready to finally move the Ducks out of the basement, but they are riding a season-high three-game winning streak. Two of those wins were against the Arizona Coyotes, but they also beat the Colorado Avalanche.

Frank Vatrano scored a hat trick in the 5-3 win over Colorado.

This week: N/A

7. San Jose Sharks (15-25-11)

Last week: 7

The Sharks added to their league-leading overtime/shootout loss total with OT losses to the Detroit Red Wings and Carolina Hurricanes before a 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins snapped a four-game winless drought.

Former LA Kings prospect Michael Eyssimont had a goal and two assists against the Hurricanes, then scored again in the win over the Penguins.

This week: N/A

6. Vancouver Canucks (20-26-3)

Last week: 6

The Canucks have won two of their first three games under Rick Tocchet, albeit with those wins coming against the two worst teams in the league in the Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets. They also got spanked 6-1 by the Seattle Kraken.

Ilya Mikheyev is being shut down for the season due to an ACL injury that he apparently suffered back in the preseason and has been gutting his way through. Despite the injury, he had a respectable first season in Vancouver, putting up 28 points (13G-15A) in 46 games, and even scored in what turned out to be his final game of the season on Friday.

Hey, they don’t ask how, they ask how many.

This week: N/A

5. Calgary Flames (24-17-9)

Last week: 5

The Flames had a little more trouble with the two worst teams in the league than the Canucks did. They needed overtime to pull out a 4-3 win over the Blue Jackets in Johnny Gaudreau’s return to the Saddledome before a 5-1 loss to the Blackhawks. Calgary responded with a 5-2 win in Seattle the next night, though.

Elias Lindholm had a goal and two assists in the win over the Kraken. He leads the Flames with 45 points (15G-30A) in 50 games.

This week: N/A

4. Vegas Golden Knights (29-18-4)

Last week: 3

The all-star break is coming at the right time for Vegas.

Having occupied the top spot in our rankings for basically the entire season up until a couple weeks ago, the Golden Knights are sliding down yet another spot after a winless week. They did salvage a couple points from overtime losses to the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders sandwiched around a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers.

Vegas scored just four goals total over the course of their three games last week. They don’t have a lot going for them right now, but William Carrier, whose career high in goals coming into this year was nine, scored his 12th in just 45 games so far this season on Saturday. He’s also riding a four-game point streak, though he missed five games in the middle of that.

This week: N/A

3. LA Kings (28-18-6)

Last week: 4

A 4-3 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers and a 4-3 regulation win over the Florida Panthers ran the LA Kings’ winning streak to a modest three games before a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Adrian Kempe scored his team-leading 20th goal of the season against Florida on Friday. With 30 games left still, Kempe has a shot at a second straight 30-goal season.

This week: @ CAR

2. Edmonton Oilers (28-18-4)

Last week: 2

The Oilers bounced back from a 3-2 overtime loss to the Blue Jackets by crushing the Blackhawks, 7-3.

Evander Kane scored in the win over Chicago, his first goal in the four games he’s played since returning from the scary wrist injury he suffered being slashed by Pat Maroon’s skate back in November.

Edmonton even let emergency backup goalie Matt Berlin come in to close out the win.

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1619577260192718848

This week: N/A

1. Seattle Kraken (29-15-5)

Last week: 1

The Kraken took two out of three last week to head into the break. They won 6-1 over the Canucks and 3-1 over the Blue Jackets, while losing 5-2 to the Flames.

Oliver Bjorkstrand probably hasn’t had quite the impact that Seattle was hoping he would when they acquired him from Columbus last summer, but he scored a pair of goals in the win over Vancouver and has four points over the last three games.

This week: N/A

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