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NHL Power Rankings Change Little, but John Tavares is 1st Star of January

John Tavares: #1 in your hearts, #26 or so for ESPN.
John Tavares: #1 in your hearts, #26 or so for ESPN.

Our weekly media and real NHL power rankings surveys are tabulated below, but first we recognize some feel-good news that isn't that surprising unless you've only been reading Evgeni Malkin's press: John Tavares was named the NHL's First Star for the month of January:

In 13 games this past month, Tavares registered 9 goals and 13 assists while displaying remarkable consistency in being held off the score sheet just once. His 4-point night against the Hurricanes marked the sixth time in January he had a multi-point game -- Tavares also had a pair of 3-point games and three 2-point efforts.

Here is the initial FanShot thread for that announcement. Power rankings and commentary is below.

Media NHL Power Rankings Survey

Since the league took so long for an All-Star break, there isn't a lot of meaningful movement, but you can see the effect of the Islanders' loss and OT loss in that pre-break home-and-home with the Leafs:

Outlet Rank Last Week Their Commentary
CBSSports 25 23
After scoring 34 goals last season Michael Grabner is on pace for just 24 this season. Still a solid number, but still a bit of a drop from his performance a year ago.
THN
(Proteau)
26 23
Isles lead league in takeaways (561); they were No. 1 last season with 876. [LHH Ed. note: Scorekeeper bias! This is why the RTSS stats need to be taken with a grain of salt!]
ESPN
(LeBrun)
28 24 Missed opportunity by dropping both games of a home-and-home with Toronto.
Sportsnet n/a 19 [took the All-Star break off]
TSN
(Cullen)
n/a 18 [no update here either]
Fox 26
21 Kyle Okposo: John Tavares has been hot, but Okposo’s January has been his best month in the NHL. He has points in 10 of 13 games, though the Isles’ offense remains inconsistent.
Average
26.25
21.3 Note: Part of the big drop is because last week's highest rankers don't have an entry yet.

For reference, here is last week's power rankings post.

Real Power Rankings

And now on to our weekly "real" power rankings courtesy of Mike, or ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles (who is the one you'll find tirelessly compiling FIG picks in the game thread), who conceived and delivers these week after week. They are calculated in true "power ranking" fashion -- i.e. how well teams fare based on their opponents' records.

Those losses to the Leafs also bumped the Isles back down a notch, to 26th, with suddenly surging (and healthy) Tampa Bay taking their place:



W L OTL Pts Pct PWR
1 Not Brooklyn
31 12 4 66 0.702 2077
2 St. Louis 29 13 7 65 0.663 1978
3 Detroit 33 16 1 67 0.670 1969
4 Boston 31 14 2 64 0.681 1950
5 Vancouver 30 15 4 64 0.653 1921
6 Philadelphia 29 14 5 63 0.656 1890
7 San Jose 27 14 6 60 0.638 1884
8 Chicago 29 15 6 64 0.640 1815
9 Nashville 30 16 4 64 0.640 1800
10 Pittsburgh 28 17 4 60 0.612 1791
11 Los Angeles 24 16 10 58 0.580 1765
12 Florida 22 15 11 55 0.573 1682
13 Washington 26 19 3 55 0.573 1678
14 Ottawa 27 19 6 60 0.577 1669
15 Minnesota 24 18 7 55 0.561 1665
16 New Jersey 26 19 3 55 0.573 1632
17 Colorado 26 23 2 54 0.529 1619
18 Toronto 25 19 5 55 0.561 1608
19 Dallas 25 21 2 52 0.542 1586
20 Phoenix 22 20 8 52 0.520 1549
21 Calgary 23 21 6 52 0.520 1533
22 Montreal 19 21 9 47 0.480 1478
23 Winnipeg 22 22 6 50 0.500 1454
24 Anaheim 18 23 7 43 0.448 1395
25 Tampa Bay 21 23 4 46 0.479 1390
26 NY Islanders 19 22 7 45 0.469 1380
27 Buffalo 20 24 5 45 0.459 1338
28 Carolina 18 24 9 45 0.441 1338
29 Edmonton 18 26 5 41 0.418 1327
30 Columbus 13 30 6 32 0.327 970