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NHL Power Rankings + Isles Bits, 3/6/13: Second Verse, Same as the First

The most consistent opinion of the Islanders is that they are maddeningly inconsistent.

Is that so hard, NHLPA?!
Is that so hard, NHLPA?!
Bruce Bennett

Before we get into the weekly power rankings, a few bits in advance of tonight's big Battle of New York:

So it's been two weeks since we've done one of these things, as I was on a vacation. Back then, I noted that many people couldn't make heads or tails of our favorite little hockey club, as the Isles were leading a Jeckyll-and-Hyde existence.

Let's see if others' views on our team have changed...

Summary of Opinion Polls

Site Ranking Prior Comments
CBS 24 24 It looks like the Isles are going to tease their fans once again by hanging just close enough. They're three points back of the eighth spot right now ... I don't think any team loses more leads in the last two or three minutes of a game than the Isles. It's a skill.
THN 26 --- Isles fans hope CCR was wrong: “You better learn it fast, you better learn it young, ‘cause someday never comes.”
ESPN 23 22 The Isles came up with a rare win against goal-starved Ottawa Sunday and are 5-4-1 in their past 10. Sadly, that's about as good as it seems to get for a team that continues to wander in the hockey wilderness.
TSN 21 25 The three worse minus ratings in the league for February all belonged to Islanders. D Andrew MacDonald (-12), D Travis Hamonic (-11) and RW Brad Boyes (-11) were the only double-digit minuses.
Fox Sports 27 23 The Isles' winless streak at home was halted at four games with Sunday’s shootout win over the Sens. The Islanders still have the worst home record in the league with three wins in 12 games.
Average 24.2 23.6 Be great or be terrible already, dammit!!!!

Well, it's nearly the same. Less than one position worse, on average. (Sportsnet.ca, by the way, seems to have ceased publishing a power rankings survey, so we're down to five opinion polls). Their notes leaned more towards the negative, but more in frustration rather than the beating-the-dead-horse option of bashing the club.

More on this in a minute. On to this site's cold hard calculations.

LHH Power Rankings

EAST W L OTL Pts Win Pct PWR Rank
1 Boston 14 3 3 31 0.775 2169 3
2 Montreal 14 5 4 32 0.696 1951 5
3 Pittsburgh 15 8 0 30 0.652 1781 8
4 Ottawa 12 7 4 28 0.609 1730 11
5 Carolina 13 8 1 27 0.614 1693 13
6 Toronto 14 9 0 28 0.609 1686 14
7 NY Rangers 11 8 2 24 0.571 1620 16
8 New Jersey 10 8 5 25 0.543 1538 20
9 NY Islanders 10 11 2 22 0.478 1462 22
10 Winnipeg 10 11 1 21 0.477 1370 24
11 Philadelphia 11 12 1 23 0.479 1321 25
12 Buffalo 9 13 2 20 0.417 1280 26
13 Tampa Bay 10 12 1 21 0.457 1262 27
14 Washington 9 11 1 19 0.452 1222 28
15 Florida 7 11 5 19 0.413 1122 30

WEST W L OTL Pts Win Pct PWR Rank
1 Chicago 20 0 3 43 0.935 2829 1
2 Anaheim 15 3 3 33 0.786 2425 2
3 Vancouver 11 6 5 27 0.614 2000 4
4 San Jose 11 6 4 26 0.619 1894 6
5 Los Angeles 12 7 2 26 0.619 1812 7
6 Phoenix 11 8 3 25 0.568 1755 9
7 Detroit 11 8 4 26 0.565 1750 10
8 Dallas 11 9 2 24 0.545 1714 12
9 Minnesota 11 9 2 24 0.545 1623 15
10 Nashville 9 9 5 23 0.500 1601 17
11 St. Louis 11 9 2 24 0.545 1599 18
12 Calgary 8 8 4 20 0.500 1562 19
13 Edmonton 8 9 5 21 0.477 1463 21
14 Colorado 8 9 4 20 0.476 1376 23
15 Columbus 7 12 4 18 0.391 1219 29

And the Islanders are right where they were two weeks ago. 9th in the East, and 22nd overall (vs. 21st two weeks ago). So in other words, no matter who you ask or which computer you use to plug in the data, the Islanders are consistently inconsistent. And as Forrest would say.... That's all I've got to say about that.

(See? I can be brief! No promises for future posts, though.)

And on to my little experiment, where regulation wins are rewarded more than OT wins, which in turn are rewarded more than shootout wins, and with shootout losses rating higher than OT losses, and OTLs rated higher than regulation losses.

NHL Standings from an Alternate Universe

(Number of points) (5) (4) (3) (2) (1) (0)
EAST RW OTW SOW SOL OTL RL Pts Place
1 Pittsburgh 13 1 1 0 0 8 72 3
2 Montreal 11 2 1 2 2 5 72 1
3 Boston 11 1 2 1 2 3 69 2
4 Toronto 12 2 0 0 0 9 68 T4
5 Carolina 12 1 0 0 1 8 65 6
6 Ottawa 9 0 3 2 2 7 60 T4
7 New Jersey 9 1 0 3 2 8 57 7
8 Philadelphia 10 1 0 1 0 12 56 9
9 NY Rangers 8 1 2 2 0 8 54 8
10 Tampa Bay 9 1 0 1 0 12 51 T11
11 Winnipeg 8 2 0 1 0 11 50 T11
12 NY Islanders 6 2 2 0 2 11 46 10
13 Washington 7 2 0 0 1 11 44 T14
14 Buffalo 6 0 3 1 1 13 42 13
15 Florida 6 0 1 1 4 11 39 T14
(Number of points) (5) (4) (3) (2) (1) (0)
WEST RW OTW SOW SOL OTL RL Pts Place
1 Chicago 13 4 3 3 0 0 96 1
2 Anaheim 10 1 4 3 0 3 72 2
3 Los Angeles 11 0 1 1 1 7 61 T4
4 Vancouver 8 1 2 5 0 6 60 3
5 Detroit 9 0 2 1 3 8 56 T4
6 San Jose 7 0 4 3 1 6 54 T4
7 Dallas 8 2 1 0 2 9 53 T8
8 Phoenix 7 1 3 2 1 8 53 7
9 Minnesota 7 2 2 1 1 9 52 T8
10 St. Louis 7 2 2 1 1 9 52 T8
11 Nashville 4 3 2 4 1 9 47 11
12 Calgary 7 1 0 3 1 8 46 T13
13 Colorado 6 1 1 1 3 9 42 T13
14 Edmonton 4 2 2 2 3 9 41 12
15 Columbus 4 1 2 1 3 12 35 15

Well at least we see a little more variance here, although not in the Islanders' favor. But that's what happens when many of your victories require more than 60 minutes.

The Punchline

Last season, the Isles finished at NHL - .482. The years before that, it was .445, .482, and .372. This year, they are currently at .478, but only one game under .500. Still, you would think that a team that said goodbye to the Rolstons and Eatons of this world and said hello to the... well anybody else, really... would have at least a marginally improved record. Their place in the standings has improved, as some other teams have fallen, but that's no excuse for a worse record. You may or may not have been looking towards the playoffs this year, and yes, the team still has half a truncated season to go, but if the team continues as they are, you would think changes would be required in the offseason.

But that's another discussion for another day. And by another day, I mean every day in the latest LHH comments section. See you guys there! :-)