Travis Hamonic's early returns; NHL power rankings

It wasn't a big surprise that Dylan Reese, who'd dropped back to Track 8 on the blueline's current triage station, was returned to Bridgeport yesterday. But that move was an echo of 20-year-old Travis Hamonic's impressive play since his call-up. Caution is the rule when gauging a defenseman's NHL introduction -- often they're sheltered, and often they play smart and simple first before a dose of confidence paradoxically gets them into trouble later for, in the parlance of our times, "trying to do too much." Think Luke Schenn his second year and Tyler Myers this past October.

But Hamonic's had an interesting variety of roles already, including a bit of both special teams. In the first Rangers game he started off paired with Reese before they shifted him to a pairing with Mark Eaton, as Reese saw less and less of the ice and Radek Martinek was made Reese's new crossing guard. In the second Rangers game and the Flyers game, Hamonic paired almost exclusively with Andrew MacDonald -- on Sunday seeing a healthy dose of the Scott Hartnell/Daniel Briere/Ville Leino line (Briere's game-winner came against Hillen/Wisniewski). [Those links are all to Behind The Net shift charts; unwieldy at first, you can actually drag the bars around and have some fun with them.]

For what it's worth, Hamonic is already credited with 12 hits in 5 games, a rate that would make him their most physical defenseman. While it's very early for Corsi-based conclusions, Hamonic was a plus in that department in all three of these losses. In other words, if you thought Hamonic has been one of the Isles' better defensemen, the underlying numbers think you're on to something. Which is scary, because of that whole "don't want to rush the kid" instinct. The Islanders are in the position of weighing big picture vs. immediate needs: So what if Hamonic plays too well to send back?

In the NHL, with the frequency of blueline trips to the trainer, decisions like that often make themselves. That's why I was sure both Reese and Hamonic would see time with the big club this year. Currently Mark Streit and Mike Mottau's injuries are long term enough to make room for Hamonic to stay in the NHL 8. And if he's here in that group, even when Milan Jurcina comes back Hamonic still probably has a spot based on performance alone.

By the time there are enough bodies to push him, will he have a strong enough resume to say, "Sorry, go push someone else"? Could be.

Media Rankings Survey

You know, when we started these, the idea was to track how impressions of the team changed from week to week. Changed. As in, "this week was not the same as last week." Alas, right now they're in an unchanging rut, and the polls reflect that, as all pile on.

NHL Power Rankings

Updated through Sunday's games. Formula and calculations courtesy of our user ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles. Explanation of how he does it is in the original post. If you have any questions about it, leave them in comments and he'll likely answer.