It's time for Week 5 of the DGA NHL Power Rankings. There's another new #1 this week, but the #2 team remains second for the third straight week. The Blue Jackets also climb back up to 30th. Check it out!
1. Chicago Blackhawks (+2) - The Blackhawks mock every franchise that's ever wasted a dollar over the minimum for a franchise goaltender.
2. Pittsburgh Penguins (--) - Sidney Crosby could play in Pittsburgh's next game. Or the game after. Or the game after that. Or the next time the Penguins get into another Winter Classic...so likely next year.
3. Washington Capitals (+1) - Alexander Semin really does care, he's just much better at caring from the bench, according to Bruce Boudreau.
4. Dallas Stars (-3) - They will be honoring Joe Nieuwendyk and Ed Belfour's induction into the Hall of Fame by forcing people to sit in the stands so it looks like people in Dallas care.
5. New York Rangers (+12) - The Rangers have the fewest regulation losses in the league. John Tortorella now feels useless, since he has nothing to scream to the media about.
6. Detroit Red Wings (+9) - Ken Holland realized no Red Wings are going into the Hall of Fame this year, so he may force Nicklas Lidstrom to retire soon.
7. San Jose Sharks (-1) - Not that they need a goalie, but I heard Evgeni Nabokov is on the trade market...
8. Toronto Maple Leafs (-3) - Phil Kessel is only averaging a point per game in November, compared to the 50 points per game he seemed to average in October.
9. Minnesota Wild (+5) - Darroll Powe has more goals than Mikko Koivu this season. That's a bit of a problem for the Wild.
10. Philadelphia Flyers (+2) - They seem to have their goalie situation resolved...for the week. Unfortunately, their strategy involves doing absolutely nothing on the ice.
11. Los Angeles Kings (-4) - How could a guy (Jonathan Quick) who has a 1.96 goals against average and .933 save percentage only win half of his 14 starts?
12. Buffalo Sabres (-2) - When a player runs over your franchise goalie and gives him a concussion, is it classy or stupid to not retaliate?
13. Vancouver Canucks (+3) - Alex Burrows vows to defend Roberto Luongo if he ever gets run over (by someone other than his own coach) by biting them.
14. Colorado Avalanche (-5) - The Avs are reportedly interested in bringing some guy named Roy back between the pipes to help the team.
15. Phoenix Coyotes (+5) - If Wayne Gretzky still coached the Coyotes, Mike Smith's goal against average would probably be over 3.00, which ironically was about average for goalies during Gretzky's playing days.
16. Boston Bruins (+7) - While the knock-the-other-team's-goalie-out method is effective, they completely stole the concept from their division rivals from Quebec.
17. Nashville Predators (-6) - Barry Trotz and David Poile have been with the Predators for all 1,000 games in the franchise's history. Interestingly enough, both claim they remember every single goal in the franchise's history. Then again, we can all count to 10...
18. Tampa Bay Lightning (-5) - Tampa Bay had a very successful week, in the sense that annoying the hell out of Philadelphia is success.
19. New Jersey Devils (+2) - The Devils have perfected their formula for winning on the road this season: fall behind 2-0, win game in the shootout.
20. Florida Panthers (-1) - Kris Versteeg notched a hat trick in the Panthers' recent win in Winnipeg. Yes, the Panthers are supposedly aware that a hat trick implies scoring three goals...
21. Edmonton Oilers (-13) - Nikolai Khabibulin's goals against average took a blow with his loss to his former team, the Blackhawks, but it's still half of what it has been with Edmonton the past two seasons.
22. St. Louis Blues (--) - Brian Elliott continues to be the best former Ottawa Senators goalie in the NHL this season, although that isn't particularly difficult to be.
23. Ottawa Senators (-5) - The Sens did drop 5 spots in the power rankings this week, but nobody thought the Sens would actually be able to fall at all when the season began...considering they started 30th in most people's rankings.
24. Calgary Flames (--) - The Flames executed their let's-get-a-4-goal-lead-and-try-to-blow-it strategy perfectly in Colorado, except they hung on to win.
25. Montreal Canadiens (+3) - Brian Gionta thanks Milan Lucic for taking the people-who-have-injured-goalies spotlight off him this week.
26. Anaheim Ducks (-1) - Teemu Selanne was Anaheim's only player who remembered that the season actually started already. He's also the oldest. Age doesn't matter...
27. Carolina Hurricanes (-1) - I thought Tomas Kaberle retired at about the mid-season point of last season...
28. Winnipeg Jets (+1) - In their most recent episode of "How to Humiliate Our Fans," the Jets lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
29. New York Islanders (-1) - Evgeni Nabokov wants out of Long Island...again, meaning Rick DiPietro might actually have to stay healthy and play some games for the Islanders.
30. Columbus Blue Jackets (+30 - here's why in case you missed last week's post) - They're not tanking, they're just conveniently trading all of their NHL quality players away.
*Note: This is the 100th post in DGA history. Thanks for being along for the ride. I'm looking forward to the next 100!
