Evan Power’s Top 10 NHL Power Rankings – Week 7

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And we are back!

Another week of my power rankings comes off a stretch of interesting developments in the NHL. Coaching changes, spicy upsets and some straight-up domination by some teams across the league have made ranking the top ten teams a more difficult task.

Starting in the North where the Toronto Maple Leafs spent the first part of their week continuing their rampage through all of the teams in Canada. 3 convincing wins on the road over the Edmonton Oilers proved that this is the Leafs’ division to lose.

They then marched into Vancouver over the weekend to face off against the lowly Canucks without their star center Elias Pettersson and ended up dropping both of those games off shining performances by Canucks G Thatcher Demko, a good sign for a Canucks teams that many including myself have labeled out of the hunt.

Staying in Canada where the Calgary Flames took a page out of the Habs book and relieved their head coach Geoff Ward of his duties, and instantly hired former Kings bench boss Darryl Sutter as his replacement.

Looking at the Central, there is some recognition that is owed to the Chicago Blackhawks who didn’t have high expectations for 2021 without a true starting netminder and their captain Jonathan Toews, yet they sit in the fourth and final playoff spot in the division at 13-8-5.

As Tampa, Florida and Carolina appear to be the big dogs in the division, the Hawks will have to fend off any second-half surges by the Stars, Preds and Blue Jackets to see themselves reach the postseason.

In the East, the Islanders embarrassed the entire Buffalo Sabres organization this week, as they took down the NHL’s worst team three straight times, moving them to 5-0 against Buffalo this season.

It remains a stiff log-jam in the East as of today, as the top six seeds are all in the hunt in the playoff race.

Lastly in the West, the Colorado Avalanche is going through a case of the injury bug with their top player and top defenceman are out of the active lineup. With Cale Makar and Nathan Mackinnon both sidelined, the Avs are holding themselves up, splitting series’ with the Sharks and Ducks this week.

Vegas, St. Louis, Minnesota and LA are all teams that can be considered threats to go on a run, as all have shown the capability to string together winning streaks up to this point.

Week 7 Rankings – 

1. Vegas Golden Knights (Last Week: 1)

Maintaining their number one spot in my week 7 rankings has the Golden Knights sitting atop the NHL’s best teams to date. Without recently extended Robin Leher, the Knights haven’t missed a beat with veteran Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes. A luxury to say the least having two great goaltenders in these situations.

Their defence led by Alex Pietrangelo and Shae Theodore are coming into their own and teams are having plenty of trouble trying to put the puck into VGK’s net these days.

2. Tampa Bay Lightning (Last Week: 2)

A stellar comeback performance during their matinee matchup on ‘Hockey Day in America’ propelled the Lightning back into the second spot in the rankings.

Andrei Vasilevsky continues his Vezina caliber season and the Lightning show how resilient they can be when trailing by multiple goals. Overall maybe the deepest team in the league, Tampa can roll all four lines in any given matchup.

3. Toronto Maple Leafs (Last Week: 4)

Toronto went into Edmonton for a three-game set this week as I mentioned, and completely embarrassed an Oilers team that had been rolling leading up to the games. Three games with a combined winning score of 13-1, including back-to-back shutouts against the league’s top two-point producers, is an astonishing feat.

Although the Leafs dropped back-to-back games against Vancouver over the weekend, I will give them a pass due to being at the end of a long trip in western Canada and their top scorer Auston Matthews nursing a wrist injury.

4. Colorado Avalanche (Last Week: 3)

The Avs are going through a tough stretch of injuries as I mentioned in the division breakdown, so it is hard to determine what kind of form the team is into this point. They don’t own an impressive record or boast any convincing statistical strengths, but based on personnel and firepower when they are fully healthy, it is hard to argue that anyone is better.

A good sign, Mikko Rantanen is carrying the heavy-weight without the usual studs, racking up 4 goals and 4 assists over their last five games.

5. Boston Bruins (Last Week: 5)

Boston seems to be able to beat anybody they play other than the pesky New York Islanders. They dropped a closely contested matchup with the Capitals in OT and bounced back to win the second game vs Washington in a physical game that saw them lose top pair defenseman Brandon Carlo to injury.

A vastly improved defensive team this season without the likes of Zdeno Char and Torey Krug, as well as a top team leaguewide on home ice, the Bruins maintain their spot this week.

6. New York Islanders (Last Week: Unranked)

Okay, I will admit my dislike for the New York Islanders now. I don’t like the way they play as a team under Barry Trotz and believe that it isn’t a very entertaining brand of hockey, especially when you have players with the skill of Mathew Barzal.

https://twitter.com/NHLGIFs/status/1368276890235117572?s=20

Yet, it works. And that is why teams that are good can sometimes be the opposite of fun. Unranked to this point, I just didn’t put much stock into the low-scoring wins they have picked up over teams like the Devils, Sabres and Rangers.

Now after shutting down Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington on multiple occasions, as well as flipping the entire Sabres organization onto its head, I’ll give the NYI their owed respect.

7. Carolina Hurricanes (Last Week: 7)

The Canes absolutely robbed the Panthers in the Vincent Trocheck deal last season in an attempt to relieve the Panthers of their cap issues. That deal looks to be paying off big time as Trocheck leads Carolina in goals (13) and points (22) this season.

8. Florida Panthers (Last Week: 6)

Goaltending will be the story of the Panthers season, who seems to be able to take down teams at the bottom of their d\ivision with ease, yet struggle to finish games against tighter defensive teams. If their goaltending stays steady, they can make an interesting push for the postseason in Florida.

9. Pittsburgh Penguins (Last Week: 8)

A team with many names you wouldn’t recognize is finding a way to string together great performances in the difficult East.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are still the moral leaders in Pittsburgh, they will need to see production from the likes of Kaspari Kapanen and Jared McCann to remain in the playoff conversation in 2021.

10. Winnipeg Jets (Last Week: Unranked)

Honorable mentions to the Oilers, Capitals, Flyers, Blues and Wild here, but after a strong week of play from the Jets finished off by an ugly blowout loss to the Habs on Saturday, overall it was very positive for Paul Maurice’s team.

The addition of Pierre Luc-Dubois currently looks like a more team-oriented improvement over Patrik Laine, and if he can mold into the role of number two center even more behind Mark Schiefele, this team will be a major threat in the North.

Evan Power, Evolution 107.9

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