Penguins Dropping, Devils Rising, Rangers Continue to Slide (Power Rankings)

It's that time of the week again.  I said I would continue to put up my own version of the power rankings every week.  If you don't like them then explain why and I'll explain my reasoning.

1. San Jose Sharks (13-4-2) (Last week: 2):  San Jose is just playing good hockey.  Despite a loss to the Red Wings in overtime the Sharks have won 8 of their last 9.  Good for 17 out of 18 points.  And they are getting healthy again.  Joe Pavelski is back.  Evgeni Nabokov is playing really well.  There is no reason that the Sharks can't continue this pace.

2. New Jersey Devils (11-4-0) (Last week: 11):  It pains me to put the Devils this high.  But I can't be biased when I'm doing these rankings and the Devils are showing that same ability they have for years.  Put any player in and they produce just enough to win.  If not for a lucky bounce here or there the Devils might not be looking as good though.  Of the 15 games they've played 7 of their 11 wins have all been by one goal.  Meanwhile only one of their losses has been decided by one goal (I had to point that out).  But wins are wins and the Devils are finding ways to do it and may very well have the best record in the Atlantic soon enough.

3. Colorado Avalanche (12-4-2) (Last week: 4):  Colorado won a game this past week with Peter Budaj in net.  'Nough said.  They are not looking quite as good as they were in the beginning of the season.  Maybe Craig Anderson is getting a little tired.  Afterall he has never played more than 31 games in a season (the most he's started was 27).  He's only 10 shy of matching the most starts of his career and only 14 from playing as many as he's ever played in a season.  We all know that he will surpass those numbers, the only question is how long will he hold up?

4. Calgary Flames (11-4-1) (Last week: 9):  The Flames are heating up (rimshot please).  But seriously they have a four game winning streak.  Jarome Igilna is finding his game.  He's scored 6 goals in the last six games.  This team has all the pieces to be a serious contender and its starting to show.  Now if only they could get Jay Bouwmeester going offensively.

5. Washington Capitals (10-3-4) (Last week: 5):  As of today the Washington Capitals have the least regulation losses of any team in the league.  No Alex Ovechkin is gonna hurt them.  But a nice pair of offensive showings against the Panthers has quelled some of the rumblings.  They won the two games by a combined score of 11-5.  Still it was against the Panthers.

6. Pittsburgh Penguins (12-6-0) (Last week: 1):  The Penguins have been held scoreless for 149:09.  That's two and half games for those of you who don't feel like doing the math.  They have lost 3 in a row.  Probably the worst part for Pittsburgh fans is the fact that Crosby can't buy a point.  He has been held off of the scoresheet for 5 straight games.  To make matters worse over those five games he is a combined -6.  So not only is he not getting it done offensively but his defense is not making up for the lack of scoring.  It won't last.  But I know everyone who hates Pittsburgh is loving this right now.

7. Philadelphia Flyers (9-4-1) (Last week: 14): The Flyers have won 4 straight.  Ray Emery is playing well.  They seem to be flying under the radar a bit.  Which is working for them thus far.  They have 3 more games in a 4 game homestand to go.  Then they head out west and will face some stiff competition.  They are showing every bit of their offensive prowess lately outscoring their competition 19-6 in their 4 wins.

8. Chicago Blackhawks (9-5-2) (Last week: 7):  Chicago was missing Jonathan Toews and now he's back.  On his first game back he scored a goal and helped turn around the anemic powerplay.  While Toews was out Chicago went 3 for 37.  That's a whopping 8%.  His first game back the Blackhawks went 2 for 3 on the powerplay.  Marian Hossa has been skating some.  He is projected to be back later this month.  When that happens the offense could be pretty scary.

9. Los Angeles Kings (10-6-2) (Last week: 6):  The Kings are have lost two straight but that was after they handed Pittsburgh their first road loss of the season.  They have a game against the hapless Hurricanes tonight and then play the rest of the Southeast division, except for the Caps.  Anze Kopitar is the real deal by the way.  His team may be stumbling a bit but he has points in 4 straight games. 

10. Columbus Blue Jackets (9-5-2) (Last week: 16):  The Blue Jackets jump up this week after taking 5 of 6 points this week.  They took the surging Sharks to overtime and then beat Atlanta and Carolina.  Steve Mason is looking like he's finding his game again.  Coach Ken Hitchcock is overjoyed by this.  They are currently tied for the best record in the central division with the Blackhawks.  Things are looking good.

11. Buffalo Sabres (9-4-1) (Last week: 3):  Buffalo started the week well by returning the favor to the Islanders.  But then they lost two straight.  They drop so far because the not only lost but lost conviningly.  Things should turn around.  Ryan Miller will be back in net for the next game.

12. New York Rangers (10-7-1) (Last week: 8): The Rangers depth will be tested.  Chris Drury is out with a concussion and Brandon Dubinsky is out with broken bone in his hand.  A bad call and a missed open net cost them the game against the Flames.  It should be interesting to see how the young guys will play in place of Drury and Dubinsky.  If they don't find their game soon and start scoring like they should the Rangers will continue their march toward the bottom half of these rankings.

13. Phoenix Coyotes (10-7-0) (Last week: 12):  Phoenix went 1-2-0 this past week.  Despite that they remain in almost the same place in the rankings because they handled Chicago quite well and nearly came back against Anaheim.  Radim Vrbata needs to start finding his way onto the scoresheet more often though.  He has been dismal since his hot start. 

14. Vancouver Canucks (10-9-0) (Last week: 10):  The Canucks have to be happy that Andrew Raycroft played more than admirably in the absence of Roberto Luongo.  Daniel Sedin is still out.  Injuries are the story of the Canucks this season.  They got rocked last night by a struggling Blues team.  They have to hope the last two games were just minor bumps in the road and not a growing trend.  They played extremely good defense in front of Raycroft but then it failed last night and didn't improve with Luongo in net.  They should be able to turn it around.

15. Detroit Red Wings (7-5-3) (Last week: 19): They got their asses handed to them by Toronto, not good.  But they handed San Jose their only loss in the last 9 games.  If injuries define the Canucks then the text book definition of injury problems would have "see: 2009-2010 Detroit Red Wings."  So far this season the Wings have lost Jason Williams, Valtteri Filppula, Andreas Lilja, and Johan Franzen.  That they are winning at all is a testament to how well they are coached and explains why they have been a dominant team for so many years.

16. Tampa Bay Lightning (6-4-5) (Last week: 15):  Tampa has the type of scoring out of Steven Stamkos that everyone was expecting out of the first pick of the 2008 draft.  He has 12 goals in 15 games and a total of 17 points overall.  Now if only the rest of the team could find his consistency.  Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay have all gone through scoring droughts this season.  I also question how long Antero Niittymaki can keep up his pace.  Right now he's got the best SV% in the league.

17. Ottawa Senators (8-5-2) (Last week: 18):  They beat Tampa and Edmonton but blew a two goal lead against the Devils.  They still rank in the bottom ten on the power play.  Eighth worst to be exact.  They're penalty kill isn't bad.  But that is what killed them in the New Jersey game.  All three goals the Devils scored were on the power play.  With the talent on this team they should at least be in the middle of the pack on the power play.

18. Boston Bruins (8-7-2) (Last week: 26): The Bruins get a healthy jump up because they finally started to find the back of the net.  They are now on a roll beating Buffalo and shutting out Pittsburgh.  Patrice Bergeron is stepping up big with Savard out.  Tim Thomas is showing why he won the Vezina last year.  In the last seven games the Bruins haven't allowed more than 2 goals.  Thomas has been in net for 5 of those games.

19. Nashville Predators (7-8-1) (Last week: 21):  The Predators have gotten at least a point in half the games they have played.  Not bad for a team that looked like it was going to totally bomb to start the season.  If they want to make the playoffs then Pekka Rinne and Dan Ellis are going to have to stand on their heads.  Which, by the way, they have shown the ability to do from time to time.  They kept the game close against the Sharks last night.  That's a good sign even if they didn't win.

20. Dallas Stars (7-4-6) (Last week: 17):  Dallas does have a better record than some of teams ahead of them on these rankings but that is simply because they are going down in overtime more than in regulation.  That's a good thing that they are staying in it through 3 periods but they need to win games outright more often.  They've lost 4 of their last 5 two losses coming in overtime.  They need to be more than just competitive if they have any desire of being a playoff team.

21. Anaheim Ducks (6-7-2) (Last week: 25):  Not a bad week for Anaheim.  A gutsy loss to the Penguins and then back to back wins.  Jonas Hiller was a force in the game against Nashville.  He had a 40 save shut out.  That's more the goaltending than the team.  Ryan Getzlaf has to be a cause of concern still.  He has 15 points but only one goal through 15 games. 

22. Atlanta Thrashers (7-6-1) (Last week: 13):  Atlanta misses Ilya Kovalchuk.  Slava Kozlov has not found his game yet this year.  An interesting thing to note about Atlanta's scoring in the last three games.  7 of the 8 goals they have scored have come from defensemen.  This was one of Atlanta's strengths coming into the season, a youthful blueline with some solid veterans.  But the forwards need to start helping out.  The d-men can only do so much.

23. Minnesota Wild (7-10-0) (Last week: 22):  Minnesota took advantage of struggling Dallas team and Toronto, albeit Toronto is playing better, there is a reason that they started off the season a franchise worst.  Minnesota dug themselves a hole and its going to take some time to work their way out of it.  The team seems to be picking up the new system but I'm sure their will be more bumps along the road.

24. New York Islanders (6-6-5) (Last week: 20):  The Isles followed up their 4 game winning streak with two consecutive losses.  If they can come out at .500 this week I'd be impressed.  They are playing decently but they are not going to be anything better than the 5th place team in the Atlantic.

25. Montreal Canadiens (8-10-0) (Last week: 24):  The Habs are struggling to put in goals.  3 in 3 games is not enough to win.  Jaroslav Halak is looking more and more like the number 1 goaltender.  Carey Price is meanwhile sitting by the sidelines more and more.  Methinks there is a trade somewhere in the Canadiens future.

26.  Toronto Maple Leafs (3-8-5) (Last week: 29):  Two more wins!  One against an injury ridden Detroit who put in a lackluster performance.  But still, they'll take it.  Phil Kessel has 2 goals all ready.  4 points in 4 games.  Maybe he doesn't need Marc Savard in order to score.

27. Florida Panthers (5-9-1) (Last week: 23): After posting 3 wins in a row including back to back shutouts they got dominated by the Capitals.  They need to have consistency.  They need to play harder.  They need a lot of things and its not looking good.

28. St. Louis Blues (6-6-4) (Last week: 27): 3 straight overtime losses and then a complete shellacking of the Canucks.  Maybe the high scoring performance last night was just what this offense needed in order to get going.  Still they lost 5 in a row.  They'll need to string a few wins together if they hope to move up these rankings.

29. Edmonton Oilers (8-8-2) (Last week: 28):  They have lost 7 of their last nine.  Include the fact that they had a stretch of four games where they were shut out for 3 of them.  Not good.  They may be using the Flu Excuse but there is only so long that works before you have to look at the personnel and wonder.

30. Carolina Hurricanes (2-11-3) (Last week: 30):  No surprise here.  The losers of a franchise worst 12 games in a row.  The Hurricanes now have lost Cam Ward for at least a few weeks.  This is an anomoly of epic proportions in my opinion.  But if this persists for much longer there will have to be a fire sale.  I've got my money on either a trade or a coaching change in the very near future.