NHL Power Rankings: When Will More Dominoes Fall After Evason Firing?

Welcome back to The Hockey News' NHL power rankings, where we rank all 32 teams based on their weekly performance.

We've already got our first blockbuster trade of the season with Quinn Hughes going to the Wild, and now we've had our first firing of the season with the Blue Jackets replacing Dean Evason with Rick Bowness.

When will the other dominos fall? With such a tight race – Avalanche excluded – teams are still trying to hang on to their playoff hopes. But, at some point, teams have to take a hard look at themselves and wonder if trading futures and loading up at the deadline – ahem, Pens and Ducks – is the right big-picture move.

Here are this week's NHL power rankings.

Another week where the Avs do not lose in regulation, and that was with third-string Trent Miner in net. There's no doubt they're heads and shoulders above everyone else.

The Lightning's winning streak hits 10 games, and it was not an easy path facing the Canes, Panthers, Habs and Avs. Losing Brayden Point will hurt, but in the season of Macklin and MacKinnon, not getting talked about enough is Nikita Kucherov's MVP-level campaign.

A bit of a stumble lately with only one win in regulation in the new year, and a 4-3-4 record since Dec. 21, but it's coincided with some lackluster play from the rival Stars, too.

An alarming stretch where the Stars are 2-4-4 in their past 10, including a few blown leads. This is their worst stretch to date, though they were so good through November and early December that it's hardly dropped them in the standings. They've allowed 3.44 goals per game since the holiday break, 10th highest in the league.

Big wins against the Canes and Habs move the Wings into the top five for the first time all season, though it was mitigated by a 3-0 loss to the Bruins. One thing about this team that's different from last season – they don't go on losing streaks nearly as often.

Back-to-back losses on the road, including a goose egg against the Blues (!) certainly makes it feel like the Canes aren't an elite contender. There's also a goaltending situation where they don't seem very keen on giving Brandon Bussi the net even though he clearly deserves more playing time.

The Habs are still clearly on an upswing, but trying to juggle a three-goalie situation smells like trouble. On the plus side, Sam Montembeault is 3-0-1 with a .921 SP since re-joining the team.

Anthony Duclair. Simon Holmstrom. Emil Heineman. One of the most exciting things about the Isles is that there seems to be a different hero every night. But stringing together wins seem to be quite difficult; they've won three in a row in regulation just twice this season.

That 10-game winning streak was, in fact, not just a tease. After losing 5-1 to the Jackets, they won three straight – albeit against weak teams – and lost by just one against the Panthers. No team's stick has risen more than the Sabres' since December.

Very, very streaky, which is unlike the Knights because they've been so consistently dominant over the past few seasons. Akira Schmid and Carl Lindbom must be auditioning for more playing time with Adin Hill – finally – expected to make his return soon.

A somewhat expected loss to the Mammoth aside – a road game and their fourth game in six nights – note it was also their first regulation loss since Dec. 21. The pending return of Anthony Stolarz will be interesting as the Leafs are doing just fine right now with Joseph Woll and Dennis Hildeby.

Tough week with the Caps missing so many players, but they grinded out a 3-2 comeback win against the Habs in overtime. It's been such a weird season that a prolonged winning streak can alter the fortunes of any one team, and the Caps banked a lot of points in November. Since Dec. 5, they're 7-8-4, ranked 23rd in points percentage.

The return of Tristan Jarry was supposed to provide stability and quality but instead he makes an ill-advised play in overtime that eventually leads to Roman Josi's winner. The Oilers must thank their lucky stars their division has been very weak this year.

Easily one of the most perplexing teams this season, the Bruins are 6-1-0 following a 0-4-2 stretch. It's the second time this season they've ripped off four straight wins after losing six straight games. In a season where the mushy middle is basically three-quarters of the league, the Bruins' best hope is catching fire at the right time to secure a playoff spot.

The Lightning outscored them 12-3 and it was an eye-opener how far away the Flyers still are despite a strong season so far. The Flyers have won three in a row just twice this season, and in both cases needed at least one shootout win to do so.

After a six-game winning streak where they scored at least four goals every game, suddenly the offense has completely dried up with only two goals in three games. Pretty tough to win games that way, even with Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner playing quite well.

Has their resurgence really been thanks to Philipp Grubauer? We saw hints of a turnaround late last season, and didn't take much notice even after he went 4-0-0 in November. Where has this been over the past four seasons?!

There's a longstanding unwritten rule that the Hart Trophy should go to a player on a playoff team, but Macklin Celebrini is clearly the exception. Even if the Sharks miss the playoffs, there's no denying the impact he's made on his team and on the league.

Tough to figure out which Panthers show up will on a nightly basis with wins against strong teams but also losses to weak teams. As the trade deadline approaches, the question is what GM Bill Zito has up his sleeve; they have Aleksander Barkov's potential cap space and he's not afraid to make big moves.

In 20 fewer starts, Karel Vejmelka is already five wins away from matching last season's career high of 26. There are times it feels like the Mammoth have hit a wall can no longer climb any higher with their inconsistency, but they've been better after a woeful November (4-8-3) going 11-9-1 since Dec. 1.

The Sens outshot the Canucks by a 2:1 margin and only won 2-1, alleviating little doubts about their goaltending. There haven't been many good vibes with the Sens lately, and they can neither score nor prevent goals.

Scoring was going to be a challenge for the Kings, but perhaps what has been most underwhelming has been Quinton Byfield's production. This was supposed to be the season where he really took over as the No. 1 center, and he's going to be their most important player down the stretch with Anze Kopitar hurt.

The Hawks didn't completely fall apart without Connor Bedard, which is a great sign. Now that he's back, the playoffs are firmly back on the table, and Bedard might be extra motivated knowing Team Canada is potentially one injury away from naming him to their Olympic roster.

The Preds are giving themselves a chance – just under 30 percent, per moneypuck.com's playoff odds – but it's likely too little, too late, and still headed toward purgatory.

They certainly have a compelling roster, which might be why Rick Bowness was enticed out of retirement. The Jackets needed a shakeup following a long string of failures to close out games, and I guess trades are too difficult to make this time of the season. Hopefully, their special teams improve.

A win in the Hughes bowl might've calmed some talk – mostly jokes – about Quinn recruiting Jack and Luke to follow him to Minnesota, but perhaps only the Rangers and Canucks have worse vibes than the Devils. It feels like the Devils are teetering on the edge; either the win against the Wild marks a turnaround, or the Dougie Hamilton situation hangs over them like a cloud and the negativity continues.

The Ducks are in absolute freefall but stemmed the bleeding with a win against the Stars. The concerning part is some of the losses weren't even close; there's only so much Lukas Dostal can do when their defense is horrendous, and they have no chance when Dostal isn't playing at an elite level.

You'd think the Flames would be making moves following the Hughes trade, but they continue to sit quietly. If there's another team out there that should be selling right now, it's the Flames.

Given the amount of trouble teams have had with goaltending this season, it's a little curious the rumor mill has been pretty quiet about Jordan Binnington. He's clearly Doug Armstrong's guy for the Blues and Team Canada, but he has a very tradeable contract with only one year remaining and ceding playing time to the much younger Joel Hofer.

"This should make you want to puke," captain J.T. Miller said following the loss to the Bruins, "and then respond tomorrow and the next day." The Rangers blew a 2-0 lead and lost their next game 4-2 – on home ice, of course – and managed to get just 22 shots on goal.

It's worth noting the Jets' .273 winning percentage in one-goal games is the 10th-lowest mark in the cap era. It's usually a sign of extreme bad luck, and in every case for the 10 teams except for the 2022-23 Sharks, each team came back with a better record in the following year. In some cases, the record was significantly better, but it also precipitated some coaching changes as well. It's a lost season for the Jets – still a chance, but very slim – but the odds are they'll be much better next season, though whether or not Scott Arniel will be behind the bench is a legitimate question.

Look, if it feels like it can't possibly be any worse, why are you still playing Elias Pettersson when he's admittedly been dealing with some nagging injuries? Why are you trying to re-sign Kiefer Sherwood when he is most obviously trade bait? The problem with the Canucks is they keep thinking they're better than last place.

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