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NHL Trade Deadline Heats Up, Islanders Power Ranking Cools Down

By Dominik
Hockey's people of power.
Hockey's people of power.

The NHL trade deadline season appears to be in full swing, with Phoenix making a big acquisition of underrated Antoine Vermette yesterday and the Carolina Hurricanes rocking the market by taking Tuomo Ruutu off the auction block and signing him to a gasp-inducing four-year, $19 million contract. P.A. Parenteau's agent doesn't even need to tweet tonight.

No deadline news for the Islanders, but Newsday's Arthur Staple suggests to not only expect Evgeni Nabokov and Travis Hamonic back in time for Friday -- but also perhaps a forward callup. (Also in Newsday: Brooklyn arena people say the place is so totally fit for hockey, don't worry about it.)

Meanwhile, interviews: Hamonic riffs on his birdcage, Matt Donovan is 1-on-1 at The Checking Line, and John Tavares on Sportsnet 590.

Some mostly trade deadline-related links before the weekly Power Rankings:

Survey of Media Power Rankings

Here is our final pre-deadline roundup of media rankings and commentary:

Outlet Rank Last Week Their Commentary
CBSSports 23 26
 Trying to re-sign Evgeni Nabokov makes a lot of sense for the Islanders. He's shown he can still play, and it's pretty clear at this point that counting on Rick DiPietro to stay healthy for a full season isn't a great idea.
THN
(Proteau)		 26 25
 Embarrassing shellacking at the hands of Sens Monday shows how far this franchise still has to go
ESPN
(Burnside)		 23 23 The Islanders continue to make it interesting with six wins in their past 10 games, but they can't put together a significant enough winning streak to make up enough ground. In short, too little, too late again for the Isles.
Sportsnet 23 29 Taking two of three last week, the steadily improving Islanders have won more games than they’ve lost in February. If they hold on, it’ll be their first winning month of the season.
TSN
(Cullen)		 21 17 The Isles have alternated wins and losses this month, yet have been outscored 28-18, allowing 14 goals in three games since G Evgeni Nabokov has been out with flu-like symptoms.
Fox 23
 24 It’s a breakout season for P.A. Parenteau, whose 41 assists rank fifth in the NHL. The Isles have traded off wins and losses in their last nine.
Average
23.1
 24 Concerned that people were picking up on the whole W-L-W-L theme, the Isles went ahead and lost two in a row.

Even tossing out Tuesday's loss, how did their average rise this week?

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.

These reflect figures through Monday's games. For the second consecutive week, the Islanders dropped back one slot, this time to 26th. Anaheim's rise continues, up to 21st.
W L OTL Pts Pct PWR
1 Must Be A Typo
 38 14 5 81 0.711 2131
2 Detroit 41 17 2 84 0.700 2100
3 Vancouver 38 15 6 82 0.695 2052
4 St. Louis 36 16 7 79 0.669 2030
5 Boston 35 20 2 72 0.632 1857
6 Nashville 34 19 6 74 0.627 1843
7 New Jersey 34 20 4 72 0.621 1830
8 Philadelphia 32 19 7 71 0.612 1802
9 San Jose 31 19 7 69 0.605 1790
10 Pittsburgh 33 21 5 71 0.602 1785
11 Chicago 32 21 7 71 0.592 1744
12 Phoenix 29 21 9 67 0.568 1722
13 Ottawa 31 22 8 70 0.574 1690
14 Los Angeles 27 21 11 65 0.551 1678
15 Florida 27 20 11 65 0.560 1675
16 Calgary 28 22 9 65 0.551 1657
17 Washington 29 25 5 63 0.534 1609
18 Toronto 29 24 6 64 0.542 1599
19 Minnesota 26 24 9 61 0.517 1574
20 Colorado 29 27 4 62 0.517 1571
21 Anaheim 25 24 10 60 0.508 1552
22 Winnipeg 29 26 6 64 0.525 1549
23 Dallas 29 26 4 62 0.525 1545
24 Montreal 24 26 10 58 0.483 1493
25 Tampa Bay 26 26 6 58 0.500 1479
26 NY Islanders 25 26 8 58 0.492 1453
27 Carolina 23 26 11 57 0.475 1444
28 Buffalo 25 27 7 57 0.483 1431
29 Edmonton 22 30 6 50 0.431 1353
30 Columbus 17 35 7 41 0.347 1078

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