NHL Power Rankings: Ottawa gains power

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Winning looks good on everyone. Take the Ottawa Senators, winners of four straight, eight of nine, and the hottest team in the NHL. Only one point separates the Sens and the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in the race for the Northeast title (to be fair, the B’s have five games in hand), and Ottawa has a seven-point advantage over its Ontario brethren, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Though eager fans had a heavy hand in voting four Sens into the starting All-Star lineup, the individual performances on this team should be applauded. Jason Spezza is scoring more than a point per game, and often with highlight-reel flair; at age 39, Daniel Alfredsson (33 points) is still producing and having fun; Milan Michalek is fifth overall in goals; defenceman Erik Karlsson is second among all players in assists (38); coach Paul MacLean is looking like a Jack Adams Award finalist; and superb goaltender Craig Anderson ranks third in the NHL with 23 wins. Here are this week's Sportsnet.ca Power Rankings:
TW	LW	Team	Our Take
1	2	(28-12-1)	Despite finishing the week with a 4-2 road loss in Carolina, the Bruins rounded out their all-Canadian homestand by taking three of four in Boston. And even though the Bruins ran into a red-hot Cam Ward on Saturday, according to PowerScout, they dominated 78% of that match.
2	1	(28-11-4)	Tough week for the league-leading Rangers, who were shutout by the Senators and lost to the lowly Canadiens. A 3-0 shutdown of Toronto on Saturday, however, extended New York’s reign atop the East. Not since 1995-96 have the Blueshirts spend so much time at No. 1.
3	4	(28-15-1)	Beating their Central Division rival Chicago Blackhawks twice in eight days, by identical 3-2 scores, has helped assert the Wings as the division’s best team. Even though Detroit trails both the Blues and Hawks in the standings, it has more regulation wins (28). If the Wings win at home vs. Buffalo on Monday, they’ll set a franchise record with 15 straight home W’s.
4	3	(28-15-3)	The ’Nucks finished their 3-1-0 road trip with a crucial victory over the Blues. But all those flights resulted in an unofficial day of rest on Sunday, when they lost 4-2 to the lowly Ducks.
5	7	(27-13-6)	Even without Patrick Sharp in the lineup, the Hawks have taken three of their last four games, including a big 4-3 win over the Sharks on Sunday.
6	6	(26-12-6)	The Blues have arguably the best coach in the league in Ken Hitchcock and two of the NHL’s top-performing goaltenders in Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak. In winning five of six in 2012, they’ve only allowed six goals in those victories.
7	10	(25-15-6)	And here we have the other argument for Coach of the Year: Ottawa’s Paul MacLean. All signs point to the entire Senators team playing in the playoffs as well as the All-Star Game. Their Sens’ four-game winning streak includes a road sweep against the Penguins, Canadiens and mighty Rangers.
8	5	(25-12-5)	Despite a .500 road swing that included heartbreaking one-goal losses to the Hawks and Wild, the Sharks have won six of eight. And even though SJ dropped Sunday’s game in Chicago, Anti Niemi entered the Save of the Year conversation by snagging a Patrick Kane one-timer in the first period. Google that bad boy.
9	9	(26-15-4)	A victory over Philly proved the cherry on top of a fantastic week for the Preds, who won both ends of a home-and-home versus Colorado and beat up on Carolina. They’ll get tested, however, when they visit New York this week.
10	8	(26-13-4)	How much does Scott Hartnell love playing alongside Claude Giroux? The 29-year-old winger’s team-leading 19 goals and 19 assists have him on pace for a career year. Though Philly lost to Hartnell’s old team, Nashville, on Sunday, they began the week with wins in Long Island and Carolina.
11	17	(24-17-2)	Nice little homestand for Washington. Three consecutive one-goal victories over the Penguins, Lightning and Hurricanes have them back in the thick of the playoff picture. More important? A ridiculously awful/awesome Russian rap video featuring a hot 16 from the Great 8 has surfaced on the worldwide web.
12	11	(25-17-2)	“I was kind of surprised, actually, that there was no one,” Zach Parise said of the zero Devils heading to the All-Star Game. (Rookie Adam Henrique, who scored his first Gordie Howe hat trick last week, will take part in the Skills Competition.) “We've got a few guys I thought who were definitely worthy of it. I guess they (the NHL) thought differently.” Jersey, victors of four of its last five, continues to succeed under the radar.
13	20	(23-17-4)	James Neal recovered quicker than anyone expected, and Evgeni Malkin scored a natural hat trick on Sunday (plus two helpers), launching him from ninth to second in the NHL scoring race with 51 points. The Pens wore hockey-taped C’s on their practice jerseys to show support for their captain, but outscoring their opponents 10-3 on the weekend was even a better showing.
14	13	(24-21-2)	The Avs couldn’t solve the Predators in two attempts last week, but a victory in Dallas has kept them in the playoff conversation. A soft schedule the rest of January opens up an opportunity for Colorado to climb the ranks.
15	12	(24-18-1)	The Stars dropped two of three this week. Way worse? Their leading assist-getter, Jamie Benn, underwent an appendectomy. Now two Dallas’s best forwards, Benn and Mike Ribeiro, look doubtful until after the All-Star Break.
16	15	(22-15-9)	Consistently average, the Kings have been alternating wins and losses for 10 consecutive games now. Centre Anze Kopitar (42 points) has come on strong, supplanting Mike Richards as the team’s leader in all the major offensive categories.
17	14	(22-17-5)	With a home-and-home against the Sabres, the Leafs had an opportunity to essentially bury Buffalo last week. Didn’t happen; they split those games. The Leafs had a chance to assert themselves a true Eastern contender at home against the Rangers on Saturday. Didn’t happen; they got shut out 3-zip.
18	29	(15-22-7)	Could the Anaheim “Everyone’s on the Trading Block” Ducks actually be making a push for the playoffs? The suddenly lively offence would indicate as much. In their five wins (in their last six games), the Ducks have scored an average of five goals per game.
19	16	(20-19-5)	The Jets suffered a huge blow when their leading scorer, Blake Wheeler (32 points), took a shot to the throat from Petr Sykora during Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils. The team is already ailing from the absence of Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian, their top two D-men.
20	23	(17-20-8)	One-goal losses to elite Eastern teams (Ottawa and Boston) were followed by a stunning 4-1 victory over the NHL-leading Rangers on Sunday. Though questions surround the Habs’ operation – since when do you trade a guy (Mike Cammalleri) in the middle of a game? – the team could build on that win over New York.
21	19	(21-14-8)	Benefitting from their hot start to the season, the Panthers are still in playoff contention but not because of their recent performance. Relying too heavily on their defence, they’ve yet to score more than twice in any game in 2012. No wonder they’ve lost three of their last four.
22	18	(21-18-7)	Close only counts in hand grenades, horseshoes, and hockey. In losing five of their six games played in 2012, the Coyotes have benefitted from the NHL’s overtime loser point thrice.
23	26	(16-21-6)	While goaltender Rick DiPietro is scheduled to a sports hernia surgery that will likely mean the end of his season, the Isles had a good week on the ice, beating both the Sabres and Red Wings at home.
24	21	(21-20-5)	One never quite knows which Calgary Flames team will show up from night to night. Will you get the well-oiled machine that runs over a decent Devils squad 6-3, or the ineffective unit that gets stampeded at home 4-1 by a mediocre Kings team?
25	22	(22-16-7)	Hanging on to the eighth seed in the West by its fingernails, the Wild dropped two of three last week. Factor in Mikko Koivu’s separated shoulder, which puts the team’s leading scorer out four to six weeks, and Minnesota is starting to look like a postseason long shot.
26	28	(16-24-7)	A rare week of good fortune for the Hurricanes, who upset the Bruins, trumped Tampa, and welcomed the return of star sophomore Jeff Skinner from concussion.
27	25	(19-20-5)	With a great goaltender and decent weapons up front, how is Buffalo – loser of 10 of its last 13 – so horrible? Leading sniper Thomas Vanek (illness) joins Derek Roy and Christian Ehrhoff on the sidelines.
28	27	(17-23-4)	Despite Sunday’s 2-1 defeat of L.A., no team has performed worse over its last 10 games than the Oilers. Racked with injuries, the last time Edmonton beat an opponent by more than one goal was well before Christmas.
29	30	(12-27-5)	A win over the Coyotes salvaged another dismal week in Columbus from being atrocious. The Jackets are a whopping 31 points behind Chicago in the Central Division race.
30	24	(17-23-4)	Despite having the best pure goal-scorer in the league – at age 21, Steven Stamkos has already reached the 30-goal mark for his third straight season – the Lightning are god-awful. Now dead last in the East, the Bolts have gone O-for-2012, dropping seven in a row. Their next opponent is Boston, so feel free to pencil in eight straight losses.

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Ottawa wields all the power

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