LA Kings: West Division power rankings after Week 11

The St. Louis Blues are leaving a playoff spot up for grabs in the West Division, and the LA Kings can make a push for it.

Every week I do these rankings, and it feels like I’ve rarely been moving teams around much this year.

This week, we are going to have some movement. The Colorado Avalanche look scary. The St. Louis Blues look like they might be in trouble. The Arizona Coyotes are back in the playoff race. And the LA Kings‘ postseason hopes took a big hit with a tough pair of losses.

Here’s how the Kings and everyone else in the West Division stacks up in the latest edition of our power rankings.

1. Colorado Avalanche (21-8-4)

Last week: 2

The Avalanche return to the top of our rankings for the first time in five weeks.

Colorado hasn’t lost in regulation in 10 games and take over the top spot in large part thanks to a dominant 5-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights last Thursday. The Avs have been dominating teams in the shot column and now have the league’s best percentage of shots on goal and shots attempted at 5-on-5.

Next four games: Ducks, Coyotes, Blues (2)

2. Vegas Golden Knights (23-8-1)

Last week: 1

Vegas bounced back from that big loss Thursday with a 3-2 overtime win over Colorado on Saturday, but that decisive loss to the Avs drops the Golden Knights out of the top spot. They have two home games left against the Avalanche later this month that may decide who gets the top seed.

Next four games: Kings (2), Wild (2)

3. Minnesota Wild (21-10-1)

Last week: 4

Two bad losses in Colorado last weekend were nothing a little home cooking couldn’t fix. The Minnesota Wild returned home and won three games this week, extending their home winning streak to 11 games. Not having fans this year hasn’t stopped Minnesota from being a tough rink to play in.

Next four games: @ Sharks (2), @ Golden Knights (2)

4. Arizona Coyotes (16-14-5)

Last week: 6

You’re forgiven if you stopped paying much attention to the Coyotes a while ago. In case you did, they have four wins in their last five games. That combined with the Blues’ struggles, and the Yotes are all of a sudden sitting just one point out of a playoff spot.

Next four games: @ Avalanche (2), Golden Knights (2)

5. St. Louis Blues (16-13-6)

Last week: 3

It’s probably time to be worried if you’re a Blues fan. After losing back-to-back home games to the Ducks, they’ve now dropped four in a row and nine of their last 11 games. St. Louis has dropped well off the pace of the top three teams in the West and, at this point, is just trying to hold everyone else off for the final playoff spot.

Next four games: @ Avalanche, @ Ducks (2), @ Kings

6. LA Kings (13-13-6)

Last week: 5

If the Kings miss the playoffs, they may look back at their lack of success against the division’s bottom-feeders as a big reason why. The Kings have only two wins in seven games against the Sharks and Ducks this year. Though they outshot the Sharks 86-51 over their two games last week, they left with zero points and two very tough blows to their postseason chances. Now they’ll have to try to bounce back in Vegas.

Next four games: @ Golden Knights (2), Sharks (2)

7. Sharks (13-16-4)

Last week: 7

The Sharks may not work themselves back into the West Division playoff race, but they are apparently going to play a factor in it. Martin Jones played what were probably his two best games of the season against his former team, making 40-plus saves in both ends of back-to-back wins over the Kings. Then the Sharks went to Arizona and lost a couple of ugly games to the Coyotes. And now the race for the fourth seed has gotten interesting.

Next four games: Wild (2), @ Kings (2)

8. Ducks (11-19-6)

Last week: 8

The Ducks had some fun playing spoiler in St. Louis, but now they have to hope that Rickard Rakell, their top trade chip ahead of the deadline, wasn’t injured too seriously in a collision with Kyle Clifford on Sunday. Rakell left the game with an upper-body injury and didn’t return.

Next four games: @ Avalanche, Coyotes (2), @ Sharks