NHL power rankings: Lightning's big dilemma, Leafs on top - New York Post

So the Islanders were upset in the 1978 quarterfinals by the Maple Leafs and in the 1979 semifinals by the Rangers, and it was clear once and for all that neither they nor Al Arbour could or would ever win the big one. And they probably wouldn’t have if not for the 1980 deadline acquisition of Butch Goring that changed everything, including the identity of the NHL’s greatest dynasty.

The Red Wings of the mid-’90s were swept in the Cup final by the Devils a year after losing a one-versus-eight first-round series to the Sharks and a year before their 62-victory, 131-point team was humiliated in the conference final by Colorado. Even with Scotty Bowman behind the bench, they probably would never have won if not for the 1997-98 early-season acquisition of Brendan Shanahan that turned the Red Wings into an all-time power.

Thus, it is this season in which the Lightning and their coach, Jon Cooper, will define themselves after last season’s 62-victory, 128-point team was humiliated in a four-game, first-round sweep by the Blue Jackets — a year after being shut out in both Games 6 and 7 of the conference finals by the Capitals after taking a 3-2 lead in the series.

So far, at least, management has not pulled off (or even sought to) pull off a dramatic change in personnel. Tampa Bay will enter 2019-20 dancing with the same stars who have brought the organization so much success while buying into the team’s salary structure. In that regard, these Lightning resemble the dynastic Devils, most of whom stayed for less, and not even for climate or tax reasons.

But the Devils won. The Lightning have not. They won’t be able to do anything about that until June, which can make for a challenging regular season. The 1979-80 Islanders, for instance, were 7-12-4 the first week of December. Nothing Tampa Bay does until the playoffs, and until it wins 16 games in the tournament, can remove the stigma of the last two years of postseason underachievement.

Just as every executive of a team peripherally in the wild-card hunt leading up to the deadline will point to the eighth-seeded 2012 Cup champion Kings as proof that “anything can happen if you get in,” so will every executive of a team buried in the mid-winter standings point to last season’s Cup champ Blues as proof “that we can still turn this around.”

There is going to be a lot of that this year.

The projected 2019-20 NHL power rankings:

1. Toronto Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews should be ashamed of his alleged behavior in late May in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he and group of presumably drunk buddies attempted to break into a female security officer’s car in the wee hours of the morning. And Matthews and his circle of adults who thought it would be a good idea for him to withhold that information for months and deceive the company for which he works and pays him an average of $11.634 million a year should be ashamed of that, too. Matthews has forfeited the right to be captain of his team. Captain? To act as an intermediary between the room and management? He wouldn’t even act as an intermediary between himself and management. The face of the franchise? Yecch! But the Leafs are loaded and made now almost entirely in GM Kyle Dubas’ image, for better or worse. Still no playoff-round victories since 2004 and one for Mike Babcock since 2011.

2. Vegas Golden Knights
The New Orleans Saints of the NHL, decomposing to ensure playoff elimination following a dreadful call by the officials. But as 3-year-olds, the inordinately deep Golden Knights have a like amount of playoff experience. Mark Stone is there from the start, Cody Glass should break through and the defense is reliably efficient if perhaps unremarkable.

3. Tampa Bay Lightning
Changes on the margins were directed toward adding additional sandpaper for an anticipated playoff run, but more may be necessary at the deadline, operating with a general manager who was more than a bit dismissive when rival execs checked in last year.

4. Colorado Avalanche
Young, talented and precocious enough to lay it all out in the regular season while buttressed by the hard edge of Nazem Kadri. His playoff experience is more limited than that of his former team in Toronto, and maybe that is part of the reason why.

5. Nashville Predators
The Predators got the man they had been after for a while in center Matt Duchene while divesting themselves of P.K. Subban in this indirect one-for-one, 3¹/₂ years after a one-for-one Seth Jones-Ryan Johansen deal. The Predators’ No. 1 goaltender, Pekka Rinne, will turn 37 in early November, but nobody seems to want to know why the Predators didn’t trade him after losing in the final two years ago.

6. Washington Capitals
The partial answer, even if not necessarily a good one, for why the Rangers felt compelled to sign and put fourth-line puncher Micheal Haley on the roster is found here, where the Caps’ always-enabling management traded for Radko Gudas apparently because having one headhunter in the mix was not enough.

7. Carolina Hurricanes
The Blues signed Scott Stevens to the offer-sheet contract under which he was playing while winning his first Cup championship in New Jersey. Down the line, the folks in Carolina may owe Montreal GM Marc Bergevin a debt of gratitude for the easily matched offer sheet that brought Sebastian Aho under contract for the next five years. But they think they’re going to win with this goaltending?

8. Boston Bruins
Zdeno Chara, perhaps the most underappreciated franchise player in NHL history, will turn 43 before the playoffs. Patrice Bergeron starts the season at 34. Brad Marchand is 31. The Bruins have been in 36 playoff games the last two springs. Five words: load management comes to hockey.

9. St. Louis Blues
The Justin Faulk acquisition introduces a fresh dynamic into the room of an organization that was unafraid over the years of shedding core pieces such as David Backes, T.J. Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk.

10. San Jose Sharks
Which is GM Doug Wilson’s best: Joe Thornton for Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau or Brent Burns for Charlie Coyle, a first-rounder and Devin Setoguchi? But they think they’re going to win with this goaltending?

11. Calgary Flames
Took nearly as big a postseason pratfall as the Lightning in going down in a first-round, five-game rout by the Avalanche following an engaging 107-point season. Does getting rid of James Neal qualify as addition by subtraction when the equation includes Milan Lucic coming the other way?

12. Florida Panthers
Additions of Sergei Bobrovsky in nets and Joel Quenneville behind the bench should make up for the departure of Denis Potvin from the telecast booth. Seriously, though, the game will miss the Great No. 5. And the Puddy Tats, finally, should stop underachieving.

13. Dallas Stars
The first-rounder the Stars kept by not keeping Mats Zuccarello is not going to put up any points for this squad that probably won’t score enough goals to go deep into the postseason. But Miro Heiskanen is a Norris winner-in-waiting.

14. New Jersey Devils
Perhaps not altogether to John Hynes’ eternal liking, the Devils could be the most throwback risk-reward team in the league while flaunting game-breaking talent up front in Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes and the difference-making P.K. Subban at the back end. Should be a fun ride unless/until Hall’s potential free agency intrudes and/or the Cory Schneider-Mackenzie Blackwood tandem in nets is no better than ordinary.

15. Montreal Canadiens
Young in important places, still feeling the effect of going all-in on Jonathan Drouin, and their timetable may not align with either Carey Price’s or Shea Weber’s.

16. Minnesota Wild
You’d have to think the attitude permeating the organization will be far better this season, perhaps even cleansed with Bill Guerin replacing Paul Fenton as GM. But last year’s fiasco aside, the Wild have accomplished nothing worthwhile since signing Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to those twin, 13-year, $98 million contracts in 2012.

17. Columbus Blue Jackets
They rolled the dice and ultimately crapped out last spring after rolling over the Lightning, losing Bobrovsky, Artemi Panarin and Matt Duchene for nothing. It will be interesting to see whether John Tortorella ratchets back some offensive freedom in exchange for a little bit more structure. Plus, the goaltending.

18. New York Islanders
What is more surprising, that the Islanders did not add a marquee talent to their rather pedestrian offense or that not a single team in the league thought it was worth taking a shot at Josh Ho-Sang?

19. Winnipeg Jets
Did you hear the one about the team with Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers on the right side of the blue line?

20. Pittsburgh Penguins
Evgeni Malkin is seeking to make amends, and that would be a start if the process hadn’t already started with the relocation of Phil Kessel to the desert, but the operation here still looks as tired as it did in April.

21. Philadelphia Flyers
From Fred Shero’s “Take the shortest route to the puck and arrive in ill humor” to Alain Vigneault’s “Whistle to whistle.” We’ll see, but at least they’ve got a goalie.

22. Chicago Blackhawks
Three words: No. Outdoor. Game.

23. New York Rangers
Not yet, folks; not yet.

24. Edmonton Oilers
Wait a second. Has anyone ever seen Connor McDavid and Mike Trout in the same room; er, phone booth?

25. Buffalo Sabres
Rasmus Ristolainen is still there and so are scads of unfulfilled potential throughout the roster waiting to be saved this time by new coach Ralph Krueger.

26. Vancouver Canucks
Embracing the rebuild after resistance. Battle of the Bro’s: Quinn or Jack Hughes for the Calder?

27. Anaheim Ducks
Dallas Eakins gets his second chance behind an NHL bench. But what’s this about Darryl Sutter being a “coaching staff adviser?”

28. Arizona Coyotes
Kessel in the Desert has a nice ring to it, but it would be a good thing if Antti Raanta could make it through a season.

29. Los Angeles Kings
Incoming coach Todd McLellan might want to check with John MacLean and Willie Desjardins about how it ends after scratching Ilya Kovalchuk.

30. Ottawa Senators
It will take a few years before owner Eugene Melnyk can undermine a playoff contender.

31. Detroit Red Wings
The challenge for Steve Yzerman is to build a team the way he did in Tampa, but without the state-tax thing and the weather.

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