I really didn’t want to be cliché and do weekly power rankings like every other site, but apparently they have monkeys pull ping pong balls out of a hat to determine their rankings. Over at the newly revamped sportsnet.ca (and how clunky is that to navigate by the way?) they have Mike Brophy’s power rankings where Vancouver is 30th and Detroit is 28th. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise since there isn’t a guy in the entire hockey media who waffles more than he does. After claiming Luongo was in for a great year on Sportsnet’s preview show, when Luongo let in 3 goals in the first period against Calgary in the opener, Brophy says “Vancouver fans need to be concerned. That’s 10 goals in his last 4 periods of hockey.” Anyway, enough of my ramblings...
1.
The Capitals look like a team on a mission. In the season opener they sent a stern message to the rest of the league that they can play defence when necessary. After the 4 goals against versus Toronto, Bruce Boudreau took his team to task for getting complacent.
2.
If Ray Emery is as motivated as he looks, the Flyers might be better than I had originally predicted. Playing back-to-back nights, Emery shut out the Hurricanes and followed that up with 50 minutes of shut out hockey against the Devils.
3.
Odds aren’t in their favour for being a top 3 team for much of the season, but back to back comeback victories against Detroit makes them a worthy candidate this week. The Blues played with intensity and a never-say-die attitude. It’s only a week in, but they’re making me a believer.
4.
Sidney Crosby wants to make me look like a fool for predicting Nicklas Backstrom could outscore him this season. Four points in his first 2 games is good. Backstrom has five, but that’s no big deal. The Penguins would be higher, but they needed a shootout to beat the Islanders. Really?
5.
They are ahead of a few undefeated teams, but quite honestly, the Hawks impressed me more than any of those teams. A shootout loss isn’t the end of the world for the Blackhawks, especially when they have their stars in peak form this early in the season.
6.
Miikka Kiprusoff seems to have forgotten that he is supposed to be a slow starter. The Flames are allowing far too many shots early in the season and they need to avoid the mid-period lulls they are having early in the season. Kiprusoff can’t bail them out forever...or can he?
7.
While the Canadiens played well, a couple of overtime wins against Toronto and Buffalo didn’t impress me too much. Carey Price had to steal the game against Toronto and was very solid against Buffalo. The loss of Andrei Markov will eventually catch up to the Habs sooner than later.
8.
The Bruins were slow out of the gate against the Capitals and it cost them the game. They looked better as the game went on and they followed that up with a 7-2 win over the Hurricanes. That should ease the pain in Bruins-ville.
9.
How do the Sharks lose 5-2 to the Avalanche? I don’t care if it was Joe Sakic night and the Avs were fired up, that’s not good enough. The Sharks followed up that performance by beating the Ducks 4-1. Probably more impressive is that the Sharks held Anaheim to no shots in the 2nd period until the 18 minute mark.
10.
The Avalanche are pretty much universally panned as the worst team in the league, and they come out of the gate by beating two potential cup contenders. No one is naive enough to think it will last, but it’s a nice early season story. PS: Matt Duchene is scary good for an 18 year old.
11.
A 2-1 win over Minnesota isn’t exactly awe-inspiring, but the fact that Steve Mason looked like he is for real is a huge positive for the Jackets. Mason will have to continue to be good because the Blue Jackets may still have problems scoring goals when Rick Nash isn’t on his game.
12.
As was mentioned in our season preview, the Thrashers won’t have any problems scoring goals this year. A 6-3 win over Tampa Bay was proof of that. Atlanta started Ondrej Pavelec in the season opener, which could be a storyline moving forward.
13.
It may be a bit controversial to have the Red Wings so high on the list after an 0-2 start, but to have them any lower would be worse. If anyone thinks that the Wings are as bad as they looked in Stockholm, they are out of their mind. The goaltending may be as bad as it looked, but the rest of the team will bounce back.
14.
The Predators started the season with a 3-2 overtime win over Dallas. Admittedly, the game didn’t appeal to me with 14 other games on Saturday’s schedule. I did see that the Predators lost JP Dumont to injury. If he is gone for any period of time, the already thin Predators could be in
T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Yes, that was a Travis Tritt joke.
15.
The Panthers gamely hung with the Blackhawks in game one of the season. More accurately, Tomas Vokoun stole game one of the season, but they all count as wins. A visibly fatigued Vokoun was thrown to the wolves in game 2 against the Hawks, but the Panthers may be better than I initially thought.
16.
The fashionable thing to do this week is to hang the blame on Nikolai Khabibulin for his gaffe at the end of the game against Calgary. We all know Sheldon Souray’s voice is deep enough, so why wasn’t he yelling to give his goalie another outlet? Just food for thought.
17.
Perhaps it’s time they stopped reading their own press clippings in Vancouver. The Canucks looked totally disinterested Saturday against Colorado, and though it’s only 2 games in, it might be time to end the Sergei Shirokov experiment. He looks like another guy to add to the list of pre-season phenoms turned regular season busts.
18.
I still really don’t know what to make of the Rangers. As long as Henrik Lundqvist is in net and Marian Gaborik is on the ice they have a chance. If history tells us anything, one of those two things is about 10 games away from coming to an end, taking my hockey pool with it.
19.
The Coyotes have the honour of being the lowest seeded unbeaten team in this week’s power rankings. The reason is fairly obvious; they aren’t that good. They beat a perennial also-ran in Los Angeles. I thought LA was supposed to be better, but we’ll get to that in about 10-11 spots (Hint hint)
20.
Despite being beaten 5-2 by the Flyers, the Devils are still a good team. They will bounce back and be winning games 2-1 in no time. In case you aren’t aware, I hate Jacques Lemaire’s coaching style.
21.
Buffalo probably deserved a better fate against Montreal on Saturday night. They outshot them by a 2-1 margin and were beaten in overtime by a goal that a) took a weird bounce off the boards and b) was batting into the net by a guy who was skating at full speed. Kudos to Brian Gionta for having the skill to make that play though.
22.
Even though the Stars lost their opener, they registered 40 shots, and James Neil scored 2 goals. As I said above, with 15 games on Saturday, a Dallas vs. Nashville game wasn’t high on my priority list, so I am going on stats alone. Since I don’t know what happened in that game, I won’t comment further. Perhaps Mike Brophy should take note of that.
23.
Anaheim looked kind of listless against San Jose, but I am willing to let that slide for one week. When you’re playing a Stanley Cup contender who just got embarrassed by the worst team in hockey, bad things could potentially happen. I’ll be generous this week, but now the proverbial puck is on your stick Anaheim...much like it wasn’t on Saturday, ah thank you.
24.
I will make it my mandate this year to bring up someone other than John Tavares when talking about the Islanders this year. With that in mind, Matt Moulson led the Islanders in shots in a 4-3 shootout loss to Pittsburgh. Oh lordy, it’s going to be a long year...
25.
Truculence, check. Belligerence, check. Spending half the game in the penalty box against two of the better power plays in the league, double check. The Leafs’ defenders are going to need to be physical AND smart because when the penalty killers are in the box and Ian White has 2 minutes of PK time, you aren’t going to kill those off.
26.
Ottawa looked far too similar to last year’s squad for my liking. Poor goaltending, zero defence, and a complete and total reliance on the top line to get the job done. I expect that to change fairly soon. One game does not a season make, but that effort won’t get the job done.
27.
The Wild lost 2-1 to Columbus, which isn’t a positive sign for the newly offensive Wild. If there is a plus side, I believe they set a franchise records for shots in a game with 34. Obviously I’m being facetious, but what is the actual record for shots in a game? Maybe Scott Cullen can send me an email.
28.
I should put the Hurricanes in 30th, but they are better than that. I’m not sure how much better, but better nonetheless. After being shut out 2-0 by Philadelphia, the Hurricanes lost 7-2 to Boston. The Hurricanes are lucky that those are two of the best teams in the east. Had they lost to a bottom feeder, they’d be...
29.
The Tampa Bay Lighting!!! While it’s true that the Thrashers can score goals, the Lightning completely revamped their defence this off-season and to allow six is only slightly embarrassing. I expect they’ll get better, but that doesn’t absolve them from being the worst team in the East this week.
30.
It’s one thing to lose 6-3 to a team who can score goals. It’s completely another thing however, to lose 6-3 to a team that can’t. The Kings were booed off the ice after Saturday’s performance, and they probably got off easy.
1.
The Capitals look like a team on a mission. In the season opener they sent a stern message to the rest of the league that they can play defence when necessary. After the 4 goals against versus Toronto, Bruce Boudreau took his team to task for getting complacent.
2.
If Ray Emery is as motivated as he looks, the Flyers might be better than I had originally predicted. Playing back-to-back nights, Emery shut out the Hurricanes and followed that up with 50 minutes of shut out hockey against the Devils.
3.
Odds aren’t in their favour for being a top 3 team for much of the season, but back to back comeback victories against Detroit makes them a worthy candidate this week. The Blues played with intensity and a never-say-die attitude. It’s only a week in, but they’re making me a believer.
4.
Sidney Crosby wants to make me look like a fool for predicting Nicklas Backstrom could outscore him this season. Four points in his first 2 games is good. Backstrom has five, but that’s no big deal. The Penguins would be higher, but they needed a shootout to beat the Islanders. Really?
5.
They are ahead of a few undefeated teams, but quite honestly, the Hawks impressed me more than any of those teams. A shootout loss isn’t the end of the world for the Blackhawks, especially when they have their stars in peak form this early in the season.
6.
Miikka Kiprusoff seems to have forgotten that he is supposed to be a slow starter. The Flames are allowing far too many shots early in the season and they need to avoid the mid-period lulls they are having early in the season. Kiprusoff can’t bail them out forever...or can he?
7.
While the Canadiens played well, a couple of overtime wins against Toronto and Buffalo didn’t impress me too much. Carey Price had to steal the game against Toronto and was very solid against Buffalo. The loss of Andrei Markov will eventually catch up to the Habs sooner than later.
8.
The Bruins were slow out of the gate against the Capitals and it cost them the game. They looked better as the game went on and they followed that up with a 7-2 win over the Hurricanes. That should ease the pain in Bruins-ville.
9.
How do the Sharks lose 5-2 to the Avalanche? I don’t care if it was Joe Sakic night and the Avs were fired up, that’s not good enough. The Sharks followed up that performance by beating the Ducks 4-1. Probably more impressive is that the Sharks held Anaheim to no shots in the 2nd period until the 18 minute mark.
10.
The Avalanche are pretty much universally panned as the worst team in the league, and they come out of the gate by beating two potential cup contenders. No one is naive enough to think it will last, but it’s a nice early season story. PS: Matt Duchene is scary good for an 18 year old.
11.
A 2-1 win over Minnesota isn’t exactly awe-inspiring, but the fact that Steve Mason looked like he is for real is a huge positive for the Jackets. Mason will have to continue to be good because the Blue Jackets may still have problems scoring goals when Rick Nash isn’t on his game.
12.
As was mentioned in our season preview, the Thrashers won’t have any problems scoring goals this year. A 6-3 win over Tampa Bay was proof of that. Atlanta started Ondrej Pavelec in the season opener, which could be a storyline moving forward.
13.
It may be a bit controversial to have the Red Wings so high on the list after an 0-2 start, but to have them any lower would be worse. If anyone thinks that the Wings are as bad as they looked in Stockholm, they are out of their mind. The goaltending may be as bad as it looked, but the rest of the team will bounce back.
14.
The Predators started the season with a 3-2 overtime win over Dallas. Admittedly, the game didn’t appeal to me with 14 other games on Saturday’s schedule. I did see that the Predators lost JP Dumont to injury. If he is gone for any period of time, the already thin Predators could be in
T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Yes, that was a Travis Tritt joke.
15.
The Panthers gamely hung with the Blackhawks in game one of the season. More accurately, Tomas Vokoun stole game one of the season, but they all count as wins. A visibly fatigued Vokoun was thrown to the wolves in game 2 against the Hawks, but the Panthers may be better than I initially thought.
16.
The fashionable thing to do this week is to hang the blame on Nikolai Khabibulin for his gaffe at the end of the game against Calgary. We all know Sheldon Souray’s voice is deep enough, so why wasn’t he yelling to give his goalie another outlet? Just food for thought.
17.
Perhaps it’s time they stopped reading their own press clippings in Vancouver. The Canucks looked totally disinterested Saturday against Colorado, and though it’s only 2 games in, it might be time to end the Sergei Shirokov experiment. He looks like another guy to add to the list of pre-season phenoms turned regular season busts.
18.
I still really don’t know what to make of the Rangers. As long as Henrik Lundqvist is in net and Marian Gaborik is on the ice they have a chance. If history tells us anything, one of those two things is about 10 games away from coming to an end, taking my hockey pool with it.
19.
The Coyotes have the honour of being the lowest seeded unbeaten team in this week’s power rankings. The reason is fairly obvious; they aren’t that good. They beat a perennial also-ran in Los Angeles. I thought LA was supposed to be better, but we’ll get to that in about 10-11 spots (Hint hint)
20.
Despite being beaten 5-2 by the Flyers, the Devils are still a good team. They will bounce back and be winning games 2-1 in no time. In case you aren’t aware, I hate Jacques Lemaire’s coaching style.
21.
Buffalo probably deserved a better fate against Montreal on Saturday night. They outshot them by a 2-1 margin and were beaten in overtime by a goal that a) took a weird bounce off the boards and b) was batting into the net by a guy who was skating at full speed. Kudos to Brian Gionta for having the skill to make that play though.
22.
Even though the Stars lost their opener, they registered 40 shots, and James Neil scored 2 goals. As I said above, with 15 games on Saturday, a Dallas vs. Nashville game wasn’t high on my priority list, so I am going on stats alone. Since I don’t know what happened in that game, I won’t comment further. Perhaps Mike Brophy should take note of that.
23.
Anaheim looked kind of listless against San Jose, but I am willing to let that slide for one week. When you’re playing a Stanley Cup contender who just got embarrassed by the worst team in hockey, bad things could potentially happen. I’ll be generous this week, but now the proverbial puck is on your stick Anaheim...much like it wasn’t on Saturday, ah thank you.
24.
I will make it my mandate this year to bring up someone other than John Tavares when talking about the Islanders this year. With that in mind, Matt Moulson led the Islanders in shots in a 4-3 shootout loss to Pittsburgh. Oh lordy, it’s going to be a long year...
25.
Truculence, check. Belligerence, check. Spending half the game in the penalty box against two of the better power plays in the league, double check. The Leafs’ defenders are going to need to be physical AND smart because when the penalty killers are in the box and Ian White has 2 minutes of PK time, you aren’t going to kill those off.
26.
Ottawa looked far too similar to last year’s squad for my liking. Poor goaltending, zero defence, and a complete and total reliance on the top line to get the job done. I expect that to change fairly soon. One game does not a season make, but that effort won’t get the job done.
27.
The Wild lost 2-1 to Columbus, which isn’t a positive sign for the newly offensive Wild. If there is a plus side, I believe they set a franchise records for shots in a game with 34. Obviously I’m being facetious, but what is the actual record for shots in a game? Maybe Scott Cullen can send me an email.
28.
I should put the Hurricanes in 30th, but they are better than that. I’m not sure how much better, but better nonetheless. After being shut out 2-0 by Philadelphia, the Hurricanes lost 7-2 to Boston. The Hurricanes are lucky that those are two of the best teams in the east. Had they lost to a bottom feeder, they’d be...
29.
The Tampa Bay Lighting!!! While it’s true that the Thrashers can score goals, the Lightning completely revamped their defence this off-season and to allow six is only slightly embarrassing. I expect they’ll get better, but that doesn’t absolve them from being the worst team in the East this week.
30.
It’s one thing to lose 6-3 to a team who can score goals. It’s completely another thing however, to lose 6-3 to a team that can’t. The Kings were booed off the ice after Saturday’s performance, and they probably got off easy.
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