When you think hockey, you think ... Sun Belt, right?! If not, perhaps you should: This year's top hockey teams -- the Lightning, Predators, Panthers and Stars -- all hail from the South. Meanwhile the Great White North, well, ... disappointed. None of Canada's teams ranked higher than 71st, and five of its seven ranked 95th or below. The differences come on the ice, sure (last year, no Canadian team made the playoffs), but even more in categories like fan relations and stadium experience: The Preds and Lightning rank 1-2 in hockey in "connecting fans to information online," "making it easy to buy tickets," "frequent promotions or giveaways" and "providing an avenue for fans to give feedback." Meanwhile, coming from the other end in those categories: The Oilers, Maple Leafs, Canucks and Jets. Love hockey? Apparently, you should move to Florida!
1. Tampa Bay Lightning (1 overall)
Love -- offered and justified, frustrated or spurned -- has been at the heart of our Ultimate Standings for 14 years as we've used fan surveys and financial analysis to rank MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams by how they reward fans for the time, money and emotion they invest in them. So when Lightning captain Steven Stamkos answers a question about his team's fans, players and staff with "You can feel that love" -- well, that says it all about his team's place at the top. -- Peter Keating READ MORE
2. Nashville Predators (6 overall)
After ending two straight seasons with April golf, the Nashville Predators hired Peter Laviolette in May 2014 and secured back-to-back playoff spots in a tough Central Division. Even still, the on-ice success seems like just a bonus in Smashville. The Preds claimed the top spot overall in fan relations, affordability, and stadium experience to go along with their 96-point 2015-16 season. -- Ben Arledge READ MORE
3. Florida Panthers (7 overall)
15-29-38-47. Those aren't Powerball numbers; they're the win totals for the Panthers dating back to the 2012-13 season. Gerard Gallant has helped turn the Cats into winners again behind the stellar goaltending of Roberto Luongo, the ageless play of Jaromir Jagr, the stout defense of Aaron Ekblad and the youthful goal scoring of Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, and Jonathan Huberdeau. -- Ben Arledge READ MORE
4. Dallas Stars (8 overall)
After winning the Central Division last season, the Dallas Stars managed to move up two spots in our Ultimate Standings rankings. When it comes to the fan experience, the Stars know how to keep the fans entertained and engaged. From the ownership, player access and lots of success on the ice, the Stars don't have any plans to move away from the top 10 anytime soon. -- Charlotte Gibson READ MORE
5. Pittsburgh Penguins (11 overall)
The Penguins looked like also-rans last December. For a high-profile club that boasts hockey's top player in Sidney Crosby, another wasted year wasn't an option -- Pittsburgh had been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round the previous two. So coach Mike Johnston was fired and replaced by ex-Bruins boss Mike Sullivan, who promptly led the Pens to their second Stanley Cup of the Crosby era and first since 2009. Another result of those moves and the title? They also climbed 20 spots in our standings. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
6. Anaheim Ducks (23 overall)
Here's the recipe for falling from a top-five franchise in these standings to scraping the top 25: Lose a fourth-straight Game 7, fire your head coach and trade away your top goalie. Anaheim is still among the best franchises in sports, but the Ducks laid an egg in the past Stanley Cup playoffs and look like a team in transition. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE
7. St. Louis Blues (29 overall)
Climbing back toward the top, the Blues regained fans' approval this year and found the No. 29 spot on the Ultimate Standings list. Ranked 11th overall in 2014, the Blues took a hit and dropped to No. 43 last year. But after finishing second in the Central Division and third in the NHL with 49 wins -- not to mention putting on a show at the end of May -- fans responded with a standings jump. -- Charlotte Gibson READ MORE
8. San Jose Sharks (30 overall)
Few things overhaul our Ultimate Standings like a long and unexpected playoff run. Take the sixth-seeded Sharks, who surged to their first appearance in the Stanley Cup finals last spring before losing to the Penguins. The Sharks skyrocketed 58 points in our standings, the highest leap of any of the 122 teams in our survey. That followed a 57-point free fall the previous year when they failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons. If you're a low-risk investor, keep the Sharks out of your portfolio. -- Doug Mittler READ MORE
9. Chicago Blackhawks (35 overall)
Blackhawks down! Eight straight playoff berths, three Stanley Cups, a deep roster and one of the best coaches in sports would probably put Chitown higher if it weren't for the cost of actually watching all of that in action. The Blackhawks fall 18 spots to 35th overall, despite claiming top-10 ranks in five of our eight categories. -- Ben Arledge READ MORE
10. Los Angeles Kings (38 overall)
The Kings rose as high as fifth in our rankings in 2014 after winning their second Stanley Cup in three seasons, but they have dropped down after missing the playoffs the following year and then losing in the first round this past spring. On the bright side, the Kings haven't fallen out of the top third of our standings in five years and easily won the Ultimate Standings intramural battle with the Clippers (69th) and Lakers (109th), the two other teams that call Staples Center home. -- Doug Mittler READ MORE
11. Arizona Coyotes (41 overall)
The Coyotes haven't finished with a winning record since 2013, but they remain among the top 50 franchises in these standings -- pretty good for a team that was under NHL ownership in 2009, almost left the state in 2013 and has gone 59-89 since then. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE
12. Detroit Red Wings (44 overall)
Once deemed the gold standard for NHL franchises, the Red Wings dropped 30 spots in our fan ratings this year. Despite their 44th overall ranking, the team's ownership remains beloved by the Red Wing fans due in part to their relentless loyalty and drive to win. There's hope that the team's shift from the Joe Louis Arena to Little Caesars Arena can help make the Red Wings one of hockey's top franchises again. -- Charlotte Gibson READ MORE
13. Washington Capitals (47 overall)
Despite another spirit-crushing playoff defeat by the rival Penguins, Year 2 of the Barry Trotz era went even better than the first. The Capitals' 120 points landed them the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's regular-season champion, and they might have made a real run at the Stanley Cup had they not been drawn, because of the league's convoluted playoff format, against red-hot Pittsburgh in the second round. Still, Washington's continued improvement didn't go unnoticed in our standings. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
14. New Jersey Devils (51 overall)
The Devils are back on track after a rough 2015 that saw them fall 27 standings spots from two years ago. New Jersey's current status remains lower than it was in 2013 and '14, and a far cry from the elite company they kept following a Stanley Cup finals appearance in 2012, when they ranked 13th overall. Still, there's no question that things are looking up in Newark. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
15. Philadelphia Flyers (58 overall)
The Flyers, those perennial playoff-makers -- outside of a five-year drought in the early '90s, Philadelphia has never missed the postseason in consecutive years -- were not supposed to make the cut last year. And then, on the second-to-last day of the season, they clinched a spot anyway. So what does a second-half surge (20-9-6 after the All-Star break) and a surprise playoff berth buy you? In Philadelphia, it's good for combined leaps of 147 spots up all of our rankings. -- Hallie Grossman READ MORE
16. Buffalo Sabres (60 overall)
With the Cleveland Cavaliers taking home a NBA championship this year, Buffalo now becomes a front-runner for most tortured sports town in America. But while the Sabres finished the 2015-16 season at just 35-36-11, there is hope for their faithful. The team's 81 points were the most since 2011-12, and rookie sensation Jack Eichel lit the lamp 24 times. -- Ben Arledge READ MORE
17. Carolina Hurricanes (61 overall)
IAfter seven straight years of slipping in the rankings, Carolina managed an upward swing. The Hurricanes are still in the bottom third of the NHL, but they have a young core of players and a patient coach in Bill Peters, who helped the team to a 15-point improvement over his first season at the helm. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE
18. Minnesota Wild (62 overall)
The Wild have made it to four straight playoffs -- the longest such streak in the franchise's 15 years in the league -- and what did they get for their trouble? A precipitous 25-spot drop down our Ultimate Standings. All told, Minnesota fell in every one of our categories, save coaching (welcome to the frozen tundra, Bruce Boudreau!), and plummeted double-digit slots in title track, ownership, players, fan relations and affordability. We think the locals are getting restless, stuck in the purgatorial space between good and not-quite-great. And that's what we call Minnesota ... not-so-nice. -- Hallie Grossman READ MORE
19. Columbus Blue Jackets (63 overall)
Just a year ago, even despite never having won a playoff series, the Blue Jackets were a top-20 franchise in these rankings. This time around, they took big steps backward in six of the eight categories. Columbus is now the second-lowest-ranked team in Ohio, but, as many an NFL team has proved, pretty much anyone can beat the Cleveland Browns. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE
20. Winnipeg Jets (71 overall)
The Jets aren't exactly flying high in the rankings, but after a 28-spot jump in 2015, they managed to hold steady and only fell two slots this year. Winnipeg's picked to be a playoff contenders this year, and for a team that hasn't had a postseason win since the turn of the millennium, that's a big deal. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE
21. Colorado Avalanche (77 overall)
For the second year in a row, Colorado managed to fall in all eight franchise rankings categories. Although it's not quite as bad as 2015's 35-spot drop, the Avalanche are down another 26 places, and that's added up to quite a free fall. Only two years ago, Colorado was 16th overall. Ownership will have a tough time stopping this from snowballing. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE
22. Calgary Flames (83 overall)
The Flames are rolling off a disappointing season considering all of the talent that they have, finishing with just 77 points, but credit Calgary GM Brian Treliving for addressing the biggest concern in the offseason by trading for goaltender Brian Elliott. Still, poor performance mixed with an aging arena and exorbitant ticket prices contributed to the Flames dropping a full 27 spots in our rankings this season. -- Ben Arledge READ MORE
23. New York Islanders (84 overall)
The Islanders bolted Nassau Coliseum, played their first season in Brooklyn and posted their first playoff series victory in 23 years. But the loyal fans who made the commute on the Long Island Rail Road were far from pleased with the Barclays Center and the way ownership handled the transition, dragging down the overall rankings 11 points to 84th. -- Doug Mittler READ MORE
24. New York Rangers (92 overall)
The past decade has been kind to Rangers fans. The Blueshirts have reached the conference finals three times since 2012, narrowly missing out on the Stanley Cup in 2014. They've made the playoffs in 10 of the past 11 seasons. Now, though, there's a notion -- one reflected here -- that the window of opportunity is closing on Alain Vigneault's aging squad, which lost to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round last spring. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
25. Ottawa Senators (95 overall)
For every step these Ottawa Senators take forward, they take -- you guessed it -- two more back. Two seasons ago, the Sens blazed through March, going 11-3-2 (as part of a longer 20-3-3 clip to end the year) ... then limped to a first-round exit in the playoffs ... then limped their way through most of 2015-16, too. Their place in our Ultimate Standings? It has followed suit. After a middle-of-the-pack No. 58 overall last year, Ottawa has crash-landed at No. 95 in 2016, its lowest mark since we started these rankings in 2003. O no, Canada. -- Hallie Grossman READ MORE
26. Montreal Canadiens (98 overall)
The 24-time Stanley Cup champs enjoyed the best start in their storied history before they imploded last season -- a campaign that ended without a playoff berth for the first time since 2012. Carey Price, the NHL's top goaltender, has recovered from the knee injury that torpedoed his team in 2015-16. But all isn't well in Montreal, where coach Michel Therrien is in fans' crosshairs following a blockbuster trade that sent popular defenseman P.K. Subban to Nashville for fellow blueliner Shea Weber. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
27. Boston Bruins (99 overall)
Few franchises have fallen further faster than the Bruins, both here and on the ice. Boston won a Stanley Cup five short years ago, then rebounded from a 2014 Stanley Cup loss to win the Presidents' Trophy a year later, when we ranked them a respectable 39th overall. But Boston didn't make the playoffs in 2014-15 and narrowly missed out again last season, dropping the B's to within an inch of triple digits, easily their lowest position since our Ultimate Standings began in 2003. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
28. Edmonton Oilers (111 overall)
It's been 26 long years since the Oilers hoisted their fifth Stanley Cup in a seven-year period, forming one of the best dynasties the sport has ever seen. Today, it's been a bit different, as they've secured four No. 1 draft picks in the past seven years. Still, there is reason to be excited in Edmonton -- a new building, improvement under new coach Todd McLellan, and a certain game-breaker who wears No. 97. -- Ben Arledge READ MORE
29. Vancouver Canucks (116 overall)
The Canucks' free fall down our standings continues. Vancouver was No. 43 as recently as 2011, when they lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup final. They repeated as Presidents' Trophy winners the following season but still tumbled to 92 in 2012 -- and only continued to slip every year since. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE
30. Toronto Maple Leafs (118 overall)
It took just one season for the all-world leadership corps of president Brendan Shanahan, GM Lou Lamoriello and head coach Mike Babcock to make an impact in Toronto: For the first time in three years, the Maple Leafs did not finish dead last in our standings. -- Doug McIntyre READ MORE