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NHL Power Rankings: Powerless Islanders Hit 30; Strome Recalled; Peters Protected

The Isles get their first much-deserved 30th place ranking in an opinion poll, and come in 29th in our own.

By ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles
Even guys in pajamas can beat us.
Even guys in pajamas can beat us.
Harry How

I remember when I hit 30. I can honestly say that it wasn't depressing, in the way that everyone told me it would be. Life went on, just as before.

Well, our Islanders just hit 30, in a very depressing way, as Sports Illustrated rated them dead last in the league. Even the Isles' old beat writer, Katie Strang, got in on the action, as she wrote the rankings for ESPN this week, and ranked the Isles 29th.

Before we get to the tables, a few added links since this morning's news bits roundup:

Official now: Ryan Strome has been recalled.

Elliotte Friedman's 30 Thoughts has this gem: "13. As Cam Ward and Anton Khudobin return to health, the Carolina Hurricanes face a dilemma with Justin Peters. They were a little disappointed in Peters' play last season, but he's made big strides and kept them in the wobbly Metropolitan Division race this season. Peters must clear waivers to go back to the minors and Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford won't risk it. The division-rival Islanders seem like a natural poacher. So Carolina will keep three goalies until a move is made."

Weekly Roundup of Opinion Polls

Date Prior
Site Published Ranking Ranking Comments
CBS 12/9/2013 29 28 Make it nine straight losses and counting for the Islanders. The first two games of this daunting trip through the West resulted in a combined 8-1 against.
ESPN 12/9/2013 29 29 Nine straight losses and counting as Jack Capuano's seat stays nice and toasty on a West Coast trip that is critical to his livelihood.
TSN 12/9/2013 28 28 Winless in nine, the Islanders' solution is to waive the unlucky Pierre-Marc Bouchard and call up top prospect Ryan Strome. Great to have Strome coming, after 33 points in 23 AHL games, but Bouchard is due for better results and would be a worthwhile waiver pickup for several teams.
Fox Sports 12/4/2013 25 25 GOOD NEWS: Newcomer Thomas Vanek had eight points and a plus-3 rating in his first 11 games with this team.
BAD NEWS: A six-game losing streak sent the Islanders plunging from the Eastern Conference playoff race.
BOTTOM LINE: General manager Garth Snow might be the best goaltender in the organization. That is not a positive.
Sports Illustrated 12/9/2013 30 29 With their losing streak now up to 10 games, waiving Pierre-Marc Bouchard is only the beginning of the changes coming to Long Island. The pressure is on GM Garth Snow to do something meaningful to address obvious holes on the blueline. Look for him to first buy time by canning coach Jack Capuano.
SB Nation 12/5/2013 28 --- Garth Snow was a goaltender, and he wasn't a very good one, so you would think that he would recognize when goaltending was a major problem for his team, but it seems like he's oblivious to it. Only Edmonton has allowed more goals than Long Island, and the Isles are actually a halfway decent possession team. John Tavares is doing everything to put the team on his back, but he could really use some help from Thomas Vanek, who's been a bit of a bust since the Isles gambled big by sending Matt Moulson away.
Average 28.2 27.8 Even we feel bad for this team now.

Everyone seems to think Cappy is on his way out. What do you think? I really think they're going to keep him around. Not saying that's the right or wrong decision, but you would think he'd already be gone, if he was going to get canned at all. I think it would take a player rebellion, at this point.

LHH Power Rankings

Rankings as of 12/9/13 (includes the Anaheim game but not the San Jose one, which hasn't started at the time this was written):

W L OTL Pts PWR
1 Colorado 20 8 0 40 2216
2 St. Louis 19 6 3 41 2207
3 San Jose 19 6 5 43 2191
4 Chicago 21 6 5 47 2072
5 Anaheim 21 7 5 47 2031
6 Los Angeles 19 7 4 42 2012
7 Boston 20 8 2 42 1994
8 Phoenix 16 8 5 37 1925
9 Minnesota 18 9 5 41 1863
10 Pittsburgh 21 10 1 43 1812
11 Montreal 19 9 3 41 1777
12 Vancouver 18 10 5 41 1761
13 Tampa Bay 17 10 2 36 1758
14 Dallas 14 9 5 33 1712
15 Detroit 15 9 7 37 1584
16 Winnipeg 14 13 4 32 1502
17 Nashville 13 14 3 29 1487
18 Toronto 16 12 3 35 1486
19 Washington 16 12 2 34 1468
20 Carolina 13 13 5 31 1458
21 New Jersey 12 13 6 30 1375
22 Calgary 11 14 4 26 1345
23 NY Rangers 15 15 1 31 1312
24 Ottawa 12 14 5 29 1275
25 Florida 9 17 5 23 1176
26 Columbus 12 15 3 27 1171
27 Philadelphia 13 14 3 29 1168
28 Edmonton 10 18 3 23 1045
29 NY Islanders 8 18 5 21 969
30 Buffalo 6 22 2 14 683

Triple digits. Yikes. The Isles are one of only three teams without double digit wins this year.

Standings from an Alternate Universe

With regulation wins counting as three points, so all games are equal in number of points meted out.

Atlantic W OTW OTL L PTS
Montreal 17 2 3 9 58
Boston 16 4 2 8 58
Detroit 14 1 7 9 51
Tampa Bay 11 6 2 10 47
Toronto 10 6 3 12 45
Ottawa 10 2 5 14 39
Florida 7 2 5 17 30
Buffalo 2 4 2 22 16
Metropolitan W OTW OTL L PTS
Pittsburgh 18 3 1 10 61
NY Rangers 14 1 1 15 45
Carolina 11 2 5 13 42
Washington 8 8 2 12 42
Philadelphia 12 1 3 14 41
New Jersey 8 4 6 13 38
Columbus 10 2 3 15 37
NY Islanders 5 3 5 18 26
Central W OTW OTL L PTS
Chicago 17 4 5 6 64
St. Louis 16 3 3 6 57
Colorado 16 4 0 8 56
Minnesota 15 3 5 9 56
Dallas 10 4 5 9 43
Nashville 12 1 3 14 41
Winnipeg 8 6 4 13 40
Western W OTW OTL L PTS
Anaheim 17 4 5 7 64
San Jose 14 5 5 6 57
Vancouver 12 6 5 10 53
Los Angeles 11 8 4 7 53
Phoenix 11 5 5 8 48
Calgary 7 4 4 14 33
Edmonton 7 3 3 18 30

Not like we need to go through this to see how bad our team currently is.

I said I remembered turning 30, and it wasn't so bad. In a few weeks, I'll hit my 40th. It still doesn't depress me. Except for the fact that it feels the Isles might match me again, despite there being only 30 teams.

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