Has the blank space that exists between the NHL’s trade deadline and the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs felt particularly cavernous for anyone else during this stretch drive?

Don’t get me wrong — what’s went on over the course of the last six months has provided plenty of excitement. Vegas has been a thrill. Tampa Bay has looked, at times, like the closest thing to an NHL “Super Team.” What Boston’s done is remarkable. The party hasn’t stopped in Nashville. And the defending champion Penguins look fully capable of pulling of the unthinkable: a three-peat.

But we’ve known this, for months. It’s time to get going.

As we impatiently play out the string, let’s look ahead and arrange a premature ranking of the Stanley Cup contenders.

Clear-cut, absolute title favourite

How teams are even within striking distance of the Nashville Predators in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy, and to a lesser extent the Central Division title, really is a wonder.

Nashville has been the most consistent, tenacious, dominant team from the jump, and just came off the sort of winning binge that’s necessary to create distance in the NHL’s crushed-can standings system, rattling off a 14-0-1 record over a four-week stretch beginning in mid-February.

Though well above average, they haven’t been a wildly dominant shot-share team, but how are these for indicators of future success: The Predators have just 16 regulation losses through 76 games, putting them comfortably on pace to be only the 10th team in the post-lockout era to finish with fewer than 20. And they remain the league’s stingiest team with 186 goals allowed, defensive mastery they pair with an attack that has produced the fourth-most goals in the Western Conference.

Nashville might not wind up with a single 30-goal scorer, but it does have 13 players in double digits. And while the quality throughout the Predators’ top four has likely prohibited one from breaking through and challenging for the Norris, it’s helped Pekka Rinne emerge as the favourite for the Vezina Trophy.

Atlantic Division power punchers

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I’m here for a long postseason run for the very fun, but very impeded Maple Leafs. But I also have all the time for two similarly dominant yet vastly dissimilar forces colliding to decide Atlantic Division supremacy. Tampa Bay and Boston presents unruly firepower versus mega efficiency.

Tampa Bay has filled the net at a historically-high level this season (its 3.51 goals per game ranks sixth in the post-lockout era), production that has seen them secure a league-high 51 wins, a league-best plus-56 goal differential (including the best at evens), and maybe more importantly, obscure the fact that they allow too many shots and own a woeful penalty kill.

Boston remains merely a step behind Tampa in the more important measurements, but has achieved its dominance in the absence of outliers. Instead, the Bruins have returned to the league’s elite with impeccable balance, ranking sixth in goals for, third in goals against (and far and away the best in the East) and No. 1 in combined special teams. But what flatters Boston most is that it has the strongest hold on the total game-to-game shot share, holding a 283-shot advantage at even strength over the opposition.

Right now, Tampa is at plus-four.

Enervated but not out

After disproving the notion that the postseason toll is simply too taxing for teams aiming to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, the Penguins provided every indication early on this season that stringing together a third was a definite impossibility.

Or, was that team hovering near the bottom of the division just in extended recovery?

Since Jan. 1, the Penguins are 24-10-3, outscoring opponents 142 to 109. And despite this surge, they still maintain the league’s third-lowest PDO — a mark that you’d expect to continue to correct itself.

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