The Atlantic Division has become clearly tiered, with two good teams at the top, a bunch of mediocre teams in the middle, and two terrible teams at the bottom. At this point, the interesting thing to watch is which of the flawed Bruins, Wings, Sens, and Habs is going to inexplicably stumble into a playoff spot.

For the first time all season, the Tampa Bay Lightning have lost back-to-back games. Last week, they beat Chicago in overtime, but then went on to get dropped by Washington and Pittsburgh, giving them their biggest losing streak of the season.

Their goal numbers are much better than their shot numbers and Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov are slowing down a bit. The Lightning are obviously a very good team but they’re predictably taking a step back.

The Leafs had a disappointing week, getting dropped in back-to-back games by the terrible Panthers and Coyotes. They rebounded and won a game they maaaaaybe didn’t deserve against the Hurricanes and then lost the the Capitals.

Had they capitalized and beaten the bad teams they played last week, the Leafs could be sitting in first place in the division right now. Still, it looks like it’s a two-team race at the top of the Atlantic right now.

The Red Wings are sliding into oblivion, but thanks to the loser point, it isn’t that noticeable. They’re currently on a four-game losing streak, but they’ve earned a point in three of those games. Last week, they got spanked 6-2 by the Oilers, and got dropped by New York and New Jersey in overtime.

But nobody behind them in the division seems to be too interested in winning, so the Wings are still sitting in a playoff spot. Maybe they can ride the loser point all the way into a playoff appearance.

The Bruins had their four-game winning streak snapped last week with a 4-2 loss to the Oilers, but beating Pittsburgh, New Jersey, San Jose, and Los Angeles helped them climb up the standings and into contention for a playoff spot.

Their underlying numbers are good, but only one of their lines scores and Tuukka Rask has been pretty bad this season. Thankfully for them, the rest of the division outside of the top two isn’t very strong.

The Sens haven’t won a game since returning from their trip to Sweden. After beating Colorado in both overseas games, the Sens have dropped six games in a row and are quickly falling down the division standings.

Matt Duchene scored his first goal as a Sen against the Islanders, which is sort of a plus. But still, maybe we trusted a little too much in the system.

The Canadiens were climbing the standings the past few weeks, but took a step backwards again with losses to Dallas and Nashville. They snapped a four-game losing streak with a win over the Sabres in Carey Price’s return to action. Price shut the Sabres out on 36 saves and the Habs are going to need him to play like an MVP in order to turn their season around.

The Panthers beat the Leafs last week and then went on to lose to the Blackhawks. They’re bad and it’s reflected in their underlying numbers. But that’s probably a positive for their front office at this point, because why would you want to outshoot the other team?

The Sabres are also very bad, but they had an OK week last week by their standards. They beat the miserable Oilers 3-1 to snap a losing streak that lasted three weeks. Immediately after that win, though, the Sabres did what they do best, losing to Montreal.