Category: NHL power rankings
Posted by Dana Wakiji (The Detroit News) on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 1:05 AMPower rankings, week 5
There is some movement in the rankings, with the San Jose Sharks getting their act together and the New York Islanders showing quite a bit of improvement. Carolina, not so much. Last week's rankings are in parentheses after this week's.
1. (2) Pittsburgh Penguins (12-3-0): Only two other teams have double-digit wins (San Jose, Colorado) and only one other team (New Jersey) is 7-0-0 on the road.
2. (1) Colorado Avalanche (11-3-2): Goaltender Craig Anderson got his first night off and Peter Budaj picked right up where he left off in a 4-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.
3. (7) San Jose Sharks (11-4-1): The Sharks are on a roll. They've won six straight games and lead the league with 55 goals, 10 of which belong to Dany Heatley.
4. (5) Buffalo Sabres (9-2-1): The Sabres continue to be a stingy bunch. They've allowed a league-best 24 goals in 12 games this season. No other team is close to that.
5. (3) Washington Capitals (8-3-4): Even with Alex Ovechkin sidelined with an upper-body injury, this team has enough talent to win. But they need to stop taking third-period penalties to do so.
6. (6) Los Angeles Kings (9-4-2): With Alex Ovechkin out, people are going to have to start paying attention to Anze Kopitar, the 22-year-old who leads the league with 24 points in 15 games.
7. (4) New York Rangers (9-6-1): The Rangers are starting to fall further back of the Pittsburgh Penguins, mostly because they are struggling on the road, losers of four straight away from MSG.
8. (13) New Jersey Devils (9-4-0): After a slow start to the season, the Devils are picking it up of late, having won three in a row. Like the Penguins, they're 7-0-0 on the road.
9. (12) Phoenix Coyotes (9-6-0): The NHL owns the Coyotes for now. The team continues to keep all the off-ice stuff off the ice.
10. (22) Vancouver Canucks (9-7-0): Don't look now but Mikael Samuelsson has eight goals, which is what fellow Swede Tomas Holmstrom has for the Wings.
11. (9) Chicago Blackhawks (8-4-1): Captain Jonathan Toews has missed four games but practiced with the team Wednesday. Former Red Wing Marian Hossa could be back in three weeks.
12. (8) Calgary Flames (8-4-1): Including the game-winner in overtime Wednesday, captain Jarome Iginla has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his last five games.
13. (10) Dallas Stars (6-3-6): What would the Stars do if they could actually win a game in overtime? They dropped another one Wednesday night against Calgary when the Flames scored a power-play goal in overtime.
14. (15) Columbus Blue Jackets (7-5-2): Blue Jackets forward Raffi Torres knocked Washington's Alex Ovechkin out in the Blue Jackets' 5-4 victory but they couldn't knoch out the Sharks in a shootout.
15. (16) Philadelphia Flyers (7-4-1): The Flyers have scored 11 more goals than they've allowed but they're stuck behind Pittsburgh, the New York Rangers and New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.
16. (21) Detroit Red Wings (6-4-3): The Wings have gotten better goaltending from Chris Osgood in two straight wins, including Osgood's 50th career shutout. It's still going to be tough without Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula.
17. (14) Edmonton Oilers (7-7-1): The Oilers continue to be plagued by the flu bug, which they very generously gave to some of the Red Wings when they were in town.
18. (11) Ottawa Senators (6-4-2): It's probably not a coincidence that the Senators have lost two straight and center Jason Spezza has missed those two games with back pain. But Spezza said he feels better and might play Thursday.
19. (25) New York Islanders (5-5-5): The Islanders took a while to win one but this past week they won four straight before getting shut out by a very stingy Buffalo team.
20. (24) Nashville Predators (6-6-1): The Predators have won three in a row but now begin a four-game road swing out on the West Coast. Up first, the struggling Anaheim Ducks.
21. (20) Atlanta Thrashers (6-4-1): The Thrashers lost Ilya Kovalchuk to a broken foot but they have managed to win their last two games, including a 5-4 victory in Montreal Tuesday.
22. (19) Montreal Canadiens (7-8-0): Tomas Plekanec has 14 points in 15 games, including five in his last five games. Their next game is against Boston, a team that hasnt' scored in a while.
23. (23) Tampa Bay Lightning (5-4-4): The Lightning are second in the Southeast Division behind the Washington Capitals and may be able to give Tampa Bay fans something to watch other than the woeful Buccaneers.
24. (18) Boston Bruins (6-7-1): The Bruins finally saw their odd streak of alternating wins and losses come to an end Tuesday in Detroit, when they were shut out for the second straight game. They are struggling to score goals.
25. (29) Florida Panthers (5-7-1): Goaltender Tomas Vokoun has two straight shutouts and the Panthers have three straight wins.
26. (17) St. Louis Blues (5-6-1): The Blues got back captain Eric Brewer last week after he had missed 10 months because of back and knee surgery. But the Blues still aren't winning.
27. (27) Minnesota Wild (5-9-0): A two-game winning streak is nothing to sneeze at, especially when those wins are against the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers.
28. (26) Anaheim Ducks (4-7-2): There's no shame in losing to the Penguins, but there is shame in a team with this much talent only getting 10 points in 13 games.
29. (28) Carolina Hurricanes (2-9-3): Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice saw better things against the Florida Panthers, but you can't sugarcoat the fact that the 'Canes have lost 10 in a row.
30. (30) Toronto Maple Leafs (1-7-5): The Leafs are still stuck on one victory but Phil Kessel returned Tuesday night with 10 shots on goal and goaltender Jonas Gustavsson is playing well.
