NHL Power Rankings (Week 4) – Montreal Canadiens continue their dominance over the NHL thanks to Carey Price, New York Rangers challenging for top spot in the near future, Vancouver Canucks continue to sputter.
With three weeks in the books and the month of October now behind us, there is no shortage of headlines to talk about. Over the last seven days, Edmonton began to hit a slight rut, while the Montreal Canadiens continued their dominance riding the shoulders of Carey Price. The Vancouver Canucks are now on a five-game losing streak, and the Toronto Maple Leafs escaped the basement in this week’s NHL power rankings.
As we typically do before getting into things, we’d like to highlight some of the top individual performances over the past week:
Capitals forward Marcus Johansson led all NHL players in scoring over the last seven days with seven points in three games. He had three multi-point games, which includes two goals and an assist versus Vancouver, two goals against Calgary, and a goal and an assist in Winnipeg.
Pens veteran Phil Kessel also had a big week with six points in three games. He started the week off hot with a three-point performance versus the New York Islanders. Speaking of Penguins, both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin potted a pair of goals each in their game against interstate rival Philadelphia.
The best performance in a single game this week goes to Florida Panthers F Colton Sceviour. He scored a hat-trick and added an assist in a 5-2 win on the road in Detroit.
Week 3 was all about the goaltenders though. As teams continue to implement more structure, those low-scoring affairs are becoming more common. Standouts were Devan Dubnyk and Carey Price. Dubnyk wound up with a three-game shutout streak that ended on Tuesday in Buffalo. Still, he allowed just two goals on 89 shots over three games. Price recorded a lone shutout, allowing two goals on 109 shots.
Once the dust settled, 13 netminders recorded a shutout in week 3: Devan Dubnyk (2), Craig Anderson, Corey Crawford, Henrik Lundqvist, Carey Price, Tuukka Rask, Jake Allen, Michael Hutchinson, Sergei Bobrovsky, Cam Talbot, Anders Nilsson, and John Gibson.