In this week, we saw All Star rosters finalized, goalie controversy of a strange degree, and some dominant performances by the leagues’ elite. Here’s how things shake down in this week’s NHL Power Rankings.
Happy Monday, everyone. It’s time for this week’s NHL power rankings and week in review.
A long time ago, I was given the task of coming up with a highlight and lowlight from the previous week, to really put things into perspective on how everyone’s week is different. Every week to each person and team is different. So we’re taking that to the NHL.
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- 3 reasons the Avalanche won’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024
- This is a big year for Alex Turcotte and the Los Angeles Kings
Here’s how the past week looked like for each team.
1. Tampa Bay Lightning (3-1-0, 6 points, +4 Goal Differential)
Lowlight: Brayden Point’s disallowed goal vs. Carolina.
Highlight: Point would later score twice in that game to lead Tampa to a 3-1 victory.
2. Calgary Flames (4-0-0, 8 points, +10 GD)
Highlight: This ridiculous sequence for David Rittich.
Lowlight: This ridiculous sequence for the five other Flames on the ice.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (1-2-0, 2 points, -3 GD)
Highlight: John Tavares’ 300th career goal vs. New Jersey.
Lowlight: Auston Matthews’ tying goal vs. Nashville disallowed, which killed Leafs’ momentum and eventually led to a 4-0 loss.
4. Winnipeg Jets (2-1-0, 4 points, +4 GD)
Highlight: Power play going 3/4 against Colorado on Tuesday.
Lowlight: Their effort against Minnesota on Thursday was lacking in almost every regard.
5. San Jose Sharks (4-0-0, 8 points, +12 GD)
Highlight: This tweet and video of a very good boy
Lowlight: Hard to find a low light with 4 decisive wins in a week. Sharks get a pass.
6. Washington Capitals (2-0-1, 5 points, +3 GD)
Highlight: Jakub Vrana had himself a night vs. Philadelphia.
Lowlight: They had an empty-net goal overturned on an offside challenge that same night. Who knew that would ever happen?
7. Pittsburgh Penguins (2-1-0, 4 points, +4 GD)
Highlight: This beauty of a goal from Bryan Rust.
Lowlight: How does a team this good lose to the Kings by 3? Oh, hockey…
8. Nashville Predators (2-1-1, 5 points, +1 GD)
Highlight: Shutting out the Maple Leafs this year is a tough task. Gotta applaud the effort from Monday night.
Lowlight: The first 30 minutes of Sundays’ game vs. Carolina, getting outscored 5-1 and outshot 20-9. Ouch.
9. Vegas Golden Knights (2-1-0, 4 points, +1 GD)
Highlight: Wouldn’t be Vegas without a heavyweight bout at center ice. Ryan Reaves earns a KO victory against Adam McQuaid.
Lowlight: Blowing a lead against San Jose in the third period of a very important game in the standings.
10. New York Islanders (2-2-0, 4 points, +2 GD)
Highlight: Potting 3 goals in the first 5 minutes of Sunday’s game against Tampa, and holding on for a 5-1 victory.
Lowlight: People still aren’t talking about them enough.
11. Boston Bruins (2-1-0, 4 points, +1 GD)
Highlight: Erasing two leads from Washington on Thursday.
Lowlight: Washington would regain each of those leads just a minute later, and ultimately won 4-2.
12. Columbus Blue Jackets (3-1-0, 6 points, Even GD)
Lowlight: The whole Sergei Bobrovsky episode. He would return to give up five goals against the Rangers.
Highlight: Joonas Korpisalo looked pretty good in his two games this week, including a 2-1 win vs. Washington.
13. Colorado Avalanche (0-3-0, 0 points, -8 GD)
Highlight: This goal by Carl Soderberg against the Jets was a very strong effort.
Lowlight: Goaltending on the whole. Grubauer gave up 6 goals on 20 shots against the Jets, Varlamov 4 goals on just 15 shots against the Flames. Yikes.
14. Buffalo Sabres (1-2-0, 2 points, +1 GD)
Highlight: CJ Smith and Lawrence Pilut both scoring their first career goals against the Devils.
Lowlight: This wacky goal from Michael Ferland in their 4-3 loss to Carolina.
15. Montreal Canadiens (2-2-0, 4 points, Even GD)
Highlight: Shutting out the Colorado Avalanche.
Lowlight: Almost getting shut out by the Blues.
16. Dallas Stars (1-2-0, 2 points, -1 GD)
Highlight: Tyler Seguin remains hot after CEO Lites’ uh…comments.
Lowlight: Erik Condra scored the first goal by a Stars forward not named Benn, Seguin, or Radulov in 2019 on Saturday.
17. Minnesota Wild (2-2-0, 4 points, -5 GD)
Highlight: A full team effort against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, holding on for a 3-2 regulation win.
Lowlight: A full team lack of effort against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, not scoring on any of their measly 18 shots.
18. Carolina Hurricanes (3-1-0, 6 points, +4 GD)
Highlight: Michael Ferland earning a KO on Austin Watson on Sunday, followed by a Sebastian Aho hat trick in a 6-3 win against Nashville.
Lowlight: Allowing Jeff Skinner to score in his first game back in Carolina.
19. Vancouver Canucks (1-0-1, 3 points, +3 GD)
Highlight: Finally playing a home game after nearly three weeks on the road.
Lowlight: Having to put superstar-in-the-making Elias Petterson on the injured reserve.
20. St. Louis Blues (3-1-0, 6 points, +6 GD)
Highlight: Any hockey played with Jordan Binnington in net.
Lowlight: Any hockey played without Jordan Binnington in net.
21. Arizona Coyotes (2-1-0, 4 points, -4 GD)
Lowlight: Conor Garland took a shot off his face, which created a nice new zipper for him.
Highlight: The puck ended up in the back of the net. Garland would later score again, without the use of his stick (again).
22. Edmonton Oilers (1-2-0, 2 points, -6 GD)
Highlight: Milan Lucic scored a goal!?
Lowlight: This goal pinballing off two defenders before beating Cam Talbot five hole, tilting the momentum in the Sharks’ direction.
23. New Jersey Devils (1-2-0, 2 points, -5 GD)
Highlight: Mackenzie Blackwood returned to action, leading the Devils to a win against the Flyers.
Lowlight: Whatever you want to call that second period in Buffalo.
24. Florida Panthers (0-3-1, 1 point, -9 GD)
Highlight: They beat the Oilers through 59:52 on Thursday.
Lowlight: Connor McDavid plays for the Oilers.
25. Anaheim Ducks (0-1-2, 2 points, -5 GD)
Highlight: Jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead on the Penguins.
Lowlight: Giving up 7 of the next 8 goals, losing that game 7-4.
26. Detroit Red Wings (1-2-0, 2 points, Even GD)
Highlight: Andreas Athanasiou scored two wonderful goals vs. Montreal.
Lowlight: No one else managed to beat Antti Niemi, and the Red Wings lost 3-2 in regulation.
27. New York Rangers (1-3-0, 2 points, -4 GD)
Highlight: Jesper Fast showing some great hand-eye to tie the game late against the Islanders.
Lowlight: The Islanders would take the lead back with about 90 seconds left in regulation.
28. Los Angeles Kings (1-2-0, 2 points, -2 GD)
Highlight: Anything Snoop Dogg said on the Kings’ broadcast.
Lowlight: Dustin Brown’s defensive effort against the Sharks on this sequence.
29. Chicago Blackhawks (0-1-2, 2 points, -3 GD)
Highlight: This Patrick Kane special on the backhand vs Calgary.
Lowlight: Carl Dahlstrom deflecting the puck through Colin Delia in overtime.
30. Ottawa Senators (2-1-0, 4 points, +1 GD)
Highlight: Their effort in Los Angeles made the Kings look real bad.
Lowlight: It’s not that hard to make the Kings look real bad.
31. Philadelphia Flyers (1-3-0, 2 points, -5 GD)
Highlight: This ten bell save by Carter Hart on Jaden Schwartz.
Lowlight: Tying the NHL record for most different goalies started in a season with the 89/90 Nordiques, 02/03 Blues, and 07/08 Kings, with 7. Even worse, the Flyers managed this in just 43 games, leaving the door wide open for numero ocho to show up.
Schmooze of the week: All-Star jerseys
I may sometimes claim to be a bit of a jersey nerd, so I have a pretty opinionated view on the now revealed All-Star jerseys.
It’s cool that they used recycled material drawn out of the ocean for the jerseys. I’m all for helping out the environment in any way possible. That’s not at all my concern. The design is.
Before I get into my issues with the jersey, some good needs to be said. I think the heathered pattern on the stripes are cool. It’s not used at all in hockey history, and in the usage here, well done.
Also, it’s simple. No crazy patterns like there have been in previous All-Star jerseys (last year’s bridges in the numbers, whatever you call those jerseys from the Montreal game, I could go on), so that’s a plus.
However, I have a couple of major gripes with these.
The first problem is the lack of teal. San Jose absolutely owns that color in all of sports, not just hockey. They are hosting the All-Star game, and I would think that the jerseys would at least somewhat mirror the brand the Sharks have.
That mirroring would certainly include the trademark color of the Sharks. They have teal on the inside collar of the shirt, which creates the “hanger effect” that many jerseys have these days. This means absolutely nothing when you’re wearing it, so I’m discounting it altogether.
Another is a lack of creativity. They only created two sets of uniforms, a black version and a white version for every team. On top of that, the design is also lazy. No four jerseys for four different divisions like there was the last two seasons (done perfectly in the LA game). There’s no difference between conferences or divisions at all. Not even a main logo for the chest of the jersey, just the logo of the team that player is representing in grayscale. Not even a logo on the shoulders for the division. Just nothing. Yawn.
The explanation of this from Chris Creamer’s sportslogos.net: The black-and-white color scheme is explained as being “inspired by the colors of the game”, with crisp white representing the ice surface, and black for the hockey puck.
Lame.
There was so much potential here, and I’m feeling let down. Here’s looking to St. Louis to get things right next year.