NHL Power Rankings: Beating Canada's Worst Teams Gets You No Street Cred

We do this exercise every week (and it's worth noting now and then that we stole borrowed it from Capitals blog Japers' Rink), but the Islanders' consistently bottom-third performance this year has provided very little theater from week to week.

In the points standings they've hovered in the mid-20s all season long. In Fenwick-close (even strength puck possession measures when the score is close) they've climbed no higher than 20th outside of a few momentary exceptions. And in our Real Power Rankings, which factor in strength of defeated opponents, they've been reliably 26-27 all season long.

It's no wonder the national pundits can't think of new material.

Power Rankings are below. Meanwhile, for discussion: Was Duncan Keith's suspendable elbow last night retaliatory? If so, should that matter?

Survey of Media Power Rankings

Here is the weekly roundup of media rankings and commentary. Links take you to the overall rankings. Commentary is what specifically was penned about the Isles.

This week: Burnside gets new material! (No, not really.) The Islanders added a couple of wins (well, a shootout win and a regulation win), but it was against two of Canada's worst three teams so that's not going to move the needle much.

Twenty-fourth here, twenty-sixth there, it's been that kind of year five years.

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 tables are through Monday's games, so for example they don't include the win over the Leafs.