Power Rankings. Caps at #1

Now that the Olympics are over the participants have returned to their respective teams and it's time to go back and look at where the teams stand going into the final stretch.

 Washington Capitals-The Caps won 14 games in a row looking to tie the most ever with 17 before the Olympic break. However they instead lost 3 straight, but an angry Alex Ovechkin can get this team going again. 

Chicago Blackhawks-  Kim Johnsson is a nice veteran pick-up for a very young team looking to go far in this year's playoffs. However is Cristobal Huet going to cut it in net for a long playoff run?

San Jose Sharks- The Sharks clearly have the talent to win it all with 4 players playing together on a line for Gold Medal winning team Canada, but is Nabokov going to be able to shake a poor Olympic showing?

Los Angles Kings- The Kings are 8-1-1 in their last 10 and may be looking to add the likes of Ray Whitney to their squad. 

Phoenix Coyotes- The Coyotes have been incredible this season and sit 4th in the overall standings. They may be looking to be buyers for the first time in a while at the trade deadline and will be aiming to add some scoring while Upshall is out. 

Vancouver Canucks- Vancouver has been impressive and now has a confident Roberto Luongo rejoining the team after winning a gold medal. Only issue may be the 6 game road trip to start after the 2 week break.

New Jersey Devils- New Jersey picked up Ilya Kovalchuk to try and separate themselves from the others in the Eastern Conference. Kovalchuk has only scored one goal as a Devil and the team has gone 3-5-2 in their last 10. We will see if the break helped this team at all. 

Pittsburgh Penguins- Sidney Crosby brings his swagger that will come with scoring the overtime game-winning goal for the Gold Medal in the Olympics. The Pens also just picked up Jordan Leopold from the Panthers for a draft pick.

Colorado Avalanche- These youngsters are rolling and are are not looking to stop anytime soon. 

Buffalo Sabers- Ryan Miller was amazing in Vancouver, leaving with a silver medal and MVP honors. He looked dejected at first after the gold medal game was over been then looked very impressive for how well he was taking in the experience of what just happened during the closing ceremonies. 

Ottawa Senators- Ottawa started horribly this season but are 8-2-0 in their last 10 and can do some damage in the East for a solid playoff spot. 

Nashville Predators- The Preds have been solid this year with consistent play from various players and they continue to just swap goalies over the last few years and still win some games. This team gave Detroit a scare in the playoffs a bit ago then Jason Arnott went down with a concussion as did the teams hopes of winning that series. 

Detroit Redwings- The Wings are barely in the playoff picture but that should surely change as they become healthy. 

Philadelphia Flyers- The Flyers would be no where without Micheal Leighton who may see some playoff time if Emery can't stay healthy. Philly is 6-4 in their last 10 including winning 4 straight to go into the break.

Calgary Flames- Jarome Iginla was hitting his stride before the break and continued it in Vancouver with his gold medal while Kiprusoff comes home with a bronze. 

Dallas Stars- Everyone thought Marty Turco was out the door in Dallas and yet he has been impressive and Auld was the one moving on. 

Anaheim Ducks- The Ducks looked dead in the water at the beginning of the season but now with Jonas Hiller playing confident hockey, the Ducks are back in playoff contention. Look out if they once again find themselves as an 8 seed. 

Boston Bruins- The Bruins have won 4 in a row but are the lowest scoring team in the league. This team has battled injuries to Lucic and Savard and need more consistent play from Tim Thomas.    

Minnesota Wild- Looking forward to watching Cam Barker with the Wild and his increase in time and hopefully productivity. 

St. Louis Blues- The Blues have some good young American talent in David Backes and T.J Oshie but they will be watching the playoffs from home. 

Montreal Canadians- Montreal is just bad considering their roster. 

Tampa Bay Lightning- See Montreal. 

New York Rangers- Oli Jokinen has been good but New York could still find themselves watching the playoffs. However I can see them getting in with other names like Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist. 

Atlanta Thrashers- They are now the Thrashers and no longer the Atlanta Kovalchuks. It will be interesting to see how this team plays together now. 

Carolina Hurricanes- Looking to be sellers at the deadline. 

Florida Panthers- Looking to make some changes and not sure what this team will look like. 

Columbus Bluejackets- Raffi Torres will likely be dealt soon and Steve Mason has been dreadful. 

New York Islanders-  Last season's worst team is not far from it this year. 

Toronto Maple Leafs-  Have made big changes getting Dion Phaneuf and J.S Giguere and GM Brian Burke will look to continue to revamp the Leafs.
 

Edmonton Oilers- The Oilers lost Ales Hemsky, Nikolai Khabibulin, Sheldon Souray, and Sam Gagner making them easily the worst team in hockey. They will be deciding who to take with the number 1 pick this year. In other news G Nikolai Khabibulin was arrested in Scottsdale for an extreme DUI.          

 

NHL Power Rankings( January 12th)

1. Chicago Blackhawks- Without a doubt have been the most consistent and complete teams thus far this season. Antti Niemi has been a stellar back-up to Cristobal Huet with huge wins this season as well as the addition of Marian Hossa in between Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews makes for one of the best lines in hockey.

2. New Jersey Devils- The New Jersey Devils have been a shining light this season after losing the likes of John Madden, Brian Gionta, and Scott Gomez the Devils haven't missed a step as they find themselves atop the Eastern Conference.

3. Washington Capitals- The Caps have been been great this season with the play of Semyon Varlamov. Washington has a potent offense with Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, and "defenseman" Mike Green. They have won 3 straight with a goals differential of 17-5 in that span and at one point this season were fighting for the top spot in the NHL.

4. San Jose Sharks- The San Jose Sharks are one of the best regular season teams of the last few seasons and with the addition of Dany Heatley continue to fight the Blackhawks for the top spot. However a recent loss to the injury riddled Detroit Redwings takes them a step back.

5. Buffalo Sabers- The Buffalo Sabers have been incredibly impressive this season and mostly due to the goaltending of Ryan Miller. They have a balanced team that is having a great season and have a better record then the Washington Capitals, however their +21 team +/- is half that of the Caps.

6.The Calgary Flames- A lot of weight is on the shoulders of Miikka Kiprusoff for the Calgary Flames team to make a playoff run, but since its only the midway point of the season they definitely deserve a spot in the top 10 having won 6 of their last 8.

7. Colorado Avalanche- The Avalanche have been one of the surprise teams of the season. No real stand out player other than goaltender Craig Anderson who had a chance at making team USA for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. Big game against Calgary coming up.

8. Vancouver Canucks- Vancouver has played well in front of Roberto Luongo and are (7-0-2)  in their last 9. Now with two healthy Sedin's and a surging Burrows the Canucks are looking dangerous in the crowded Western Conference.

9. The Phoenix Coyotes- Yes that's right! The Phoenix Coyotes have been extremely impressive this year in what has been a year full of goalies stepping up. Ilya Bryzgalov already has 5 shutouts and remains near the stop of every statistical category. He has been huge for a team that has won a lot of games and has not scored many goals. Dave Tippett has come in with his defensive system and put the Coyotes in place for a playoff spot for the first time in 8 years.

10. Nashville Predators- Nashville, the team that no one talks about till the scare Detroit a bit in the playoffs. The Predators had a horrendous start to the season but with a healthy Steve Sullivan and decent scoring from David Legwand and Martin Erat and a sometime healthy Jason Arnott the Predators find themselves well in the playoff hunt may finish high enough to not be the underdog.

11. Pittsburgh Penguins- Last years Stanley Cup Champions and two time Eastern Conferences Champs find themselves maybe not as high as they would expect in the overall standings. The 29th ranked power play in the league is surprising and needs to be solved and a big win over Toronto is nothing to cheer about. Down a bit for now but certainly not out of competing for the top spot in the conference.

12. Los Angeles Kings- The Kings started off with a bang leading the Pacific and even the Conference at one point, then Ryan Smyth got hurt. Anze Kopitar shot out of the gate but his scoring production has slowed lately. The Kings have been less impressive as of late but still have had a monster first half. Goalie Jonathan Quick also will be the 3rd string for the USA in the Vancouver Olympics. Although the talk around LA now is whether or not they will get Ilya Kovalchuk.

13. The Detroit Redwings- Injuries to Franzen, Kronwall, Ericsson, Filppula, Zetterberg, and Lilja have made things hard on the Redwings this season yet they remain just outside the playoffs. Look for this team to be the same "old" Redwings come the playoffs "if" they can get healthy.

14. Boston Bruins- The Bruins and Flyers were looked to challenge for the Eastern Conference title coming into this season much why they were chosen for the Winter Classic in Fenway Park. Both teams have been disappointing at this point of the season yet the Bruins have started to right the ship. The Flyers have too right before the big game and it made for an incredible overtime finish in the Winter Classic. Bergeron and Savard are out for now and it has slowed them down since.

15. The Philadelphia Flyers- Not sure whether the Flyers deserve to be this high but they have shown signs of life. With yet another injury to Simon Gagne, Blair Betts and to netminder Ray Emery the Flyers struggled mightly in late November through December. Since getting Betts and Gagne back the Flyers have had winning streaks over many conference opponents. Michael Leighton has maybe earned the back up position away from Brian Boucher who has a season record of 4-11-1. If the Flyers get production from Jeff Carter, who had 46 goals last season and lead all Canadian Players ( Was not named to team Canada), they can be not only a playoff team but  a dangerous playoff team.

16. Ottawa Senators- Ottawa has been without Spezza and Alfredsson and has stayed a float in the Eastern Conference and currently find themselves in a playoff spot. When healthy, at least making the playoffs should attainable in a poor Conference.

17. Dallas Stars- No goalie has been hurt more by the trapezoid rule then Marty Turco, a valuable asset in having another defenseman in the D zone that is able to make full ice passes and get the puck out of the zone. Marty Turco has just not been the same and may find himself starting less games this season. The stars offense has been good however I still find that I often forget that Brad Richards is on this team.

18. The New York Rangers- Wow, what a great signing in Marian Garborik who finds himself a top the league in goals this season. However the Rangers have no one else who can put up much of anything in the scoring department. Chris Drury has been MIA but Lundqvist has been steady and can maybe get this team to the playoffs this year but they will be an easy first round out.

19.Minnesota Wild- Martin Havlet is no Marian Gaborik.

20. Anaheim Ducks- The Ducks have been incredibly disappointing this season with names like Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer its difficult to see where the issue is. A big loss in Chris Pronger may be some of the reason but this is a team that should be much more exciting then they have been.

21. Montreal Canadians- The Canadians made many personnel changes trying to make their team a quick fix. It's safe to say that hasn't happened as they find themselves outside the playoffs. The Canadians need to give themselves some time to gel together before jumping ship.

22. Florida Panthers-The Panthers have some young talent that is finally showing some significant improvements, however this team does not have the money to have a winning season any time soon. Their young talent will soon out grow the Panthers and will demand more money and will find new homes. 

23. New York Islanders- The Islanders have won a few games lately even shutting out the New Jersey Devils and a few wins can move a team up a few spots in the East but when it comes down to it John Tavares isn't enough yet to get them to the playoffs. Nor having 3 starting goalies in Dwayne Roloson, Martin Biron and Rick Dipietro.

24. St. Louis Blues- The St. Louis Blues have young talent in Eric Johnson and T.J. Oshie but Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald have been no shows. St. Louis made the playoffs last year but they won't be doing able to this year's Western Conference.

25. Columbus Blue Jackets- Columbus looked to have turn the page on their losing ways when they made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season, even though there were an easy out for the Detroit Redwings. With seemingly the same team the obvious difference appears to be the play of goalie Steve Mason. No where near the goalie he was last season, Steve Mason has made things harder on a Blue Jackets team that it struggling mightily.

26. Tampa Bay Lightning- Tampa has names like Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis and are out of the playoff picture. The Lightning won the cup in 2004 and then came the lockout. Since then Tampa Bay has been below average and sent off Conn Smyth winner Brad Richards to Dallas and this year talk has been about sending the French Canadian and team captain Lecavalier to Montreal.

27. The Atlanta Thrashers- The Thrashers are still awful as usual and the only reason anyone has even talked about them is because everyone wants to know where Ilya Kovalchuk will land. Johan Hedberg has been decent and Maxim Afinogenov has shown signs of life after appearing dead in Buffalo but Atlanta finds themselves where they always do, in the middle of a poor division.

28.The Toronto Maple Leafs- New Head Coach Ron Wilson and forward Phil Kessel have not been enough to make Toronto as much different from what they appear to be. An early spark from Kessel and Gustavsson has done little lately for a bottom of the barrel team in the highest hockey market the league has.

29. The Edmonton Oilers- A lot to look at coming into this season with Pat Quinn and Tom Renney joining on the coaching staff and with the signing of Nikolai Khabibulin. Injuries to Ales Hemsky and Khabibulin leave this team no where near able to claim a playoff spot in the heavy West. Its unfortunate as we will have to wait to see what this team could accomplish healthy and it is also hard to judge the job of Coach Pat Quinn. 

30. The Carolina Hurricanes- The Cane's ended last season in the Eastern Conference Finals losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. This year they will find themselves looking for the top spot in the lottery. Cam Ward is still a tremendous goaltender but its not enough to keep the Hurricanes above water.