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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:
- Apparently the Leafs will shop around for a goalie. Well, that makes one buyer anyway.
- Just because Filip Kuba is a free agent and only has one "l" in his name doesn't mean Bryan Murray is looking to deal him.
- TSN lists their trade bait. No Islanders mentioned.
- What's the value of a draft pick anyway?
- Graham James, demon, faces sentencing.
- Zenon Konopka and his wines.
- Milan Michalek and his buddy show how Czechs can be kinda funny.
- No, seriously: Czechs can be pretty funny sometimes. (OT, but that's a great film.)
- Puck Daddy looks at some teams that might be buying this trade deadline.
- With Toronto reporters pinning him down about Rick Nash, Sharks GM Doug Wilson talks deadline philosophy.
- Trade Deadline Previews: My take on Western Conference buyers and sellers.
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 |