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That's better. The Isles' salvaged road trip turned around their record, and the quality of the teams they beat helped lift them in our power rankings. Usually we compare those rankings with the opinion polls, but it appears few sites have an opinion this week.
Weekly Round-Up of Opinion Polls
| Site | Updated | New Ranking | Prior Ranking | Comments |
| CBS | 11/11/2014 | 12 | 17 | The Isles are starting to put everything back together. The goaltending has improved and the team is battling in close games. Winning three of five on a Pacific swing is no easy feat. |
| ESPN | 11/10/2014 | 13 | 22 | The Isles wrapped up their Western swing in impressive fashion with wins in Anaheim, L.A. and Arizona. The goaltending has been sharper of late, which is no small factor. |
| TSN | --- | --- | 19 | None this week |
| Fox | 11/6/2014 | 21 | 11 | An overtime win in Anaheim looks better on paper than in reality since the Ducks were missing Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. New York's goaltending is a concern. The Islanders were 29th in the league with an .881 team save percentage before Wednesday's games. |
| USA Today | --- | --- | 17 | None this week |
| WaPo | --- | --- | 13 | None this week |
| Average | 15 | 17 | Cricket sounds |
Seems like nearly everyone took the week off (and Fox Sports always lags behind). We'll chalk it up to observance of Veterans' / Remembrance Day. If these publications continue to slack off next week, we'll have to find a few more. Or ignore them entirely.
LHH Power Rankings
For games through 11/10/14, so last night's dominance over the 'Lanche doesn't factor in.
| GP | Reg W | OT W | SO | OT L | Reg L | LHH Pts | LHH Rating | ||
| 1 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 13 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 59 | 139 |
| 2 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 15 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 62 | 129 |
| 3 | Nashville Predators | 14 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 56 | 124 |
| 4 | Detroit Red Wings | 15 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 51 | 119 |
| 5 | Vancouver Canucks | 16 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 58 | 118 |
| 6 | Calgary Flames | 17 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 52 | 113 |
| 7 | Philadelphia Flyers | 14 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 44 | 109 |
| 8 | New York Islanders | 14 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 46 | 108 |
| 9 | Anaheim Ducks | 16 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 63 | 107 |
| 10 | St. Louis Blues | 14 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 49 | 107 |
| 11 | San Jose Sharks | 16 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 48 | 107 |
| 12 | Winnipeg Jets | 15 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 46 | 106 |
| 13 | Montreal Canadiens | 15 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 48 | 102 |
| 14 | Los Angeles Kings | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 52 | 100 |
| 15 | Ottawa Senators | 14 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 47 | 100 |
| 16 | Minnesota Wild | 13 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 39 | 99 |
| 17 | Chicago Blackhawks | 15 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 42 | 99 |
| 18 | Boston Bruins | 16 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 53 | 98 |
| 19 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 15 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 51 | 98 |
| 20 | Washington Capitals | 14 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 39 | 97 |
| 21 | New Jersey Devils | 15 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 36 | 92 |
| 22 | Arizona Coyotes | 14 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 32 | 92 |
| 23 | New York Rangers | 14 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 35 | 92 |
| 24 | Edmonton Oilers | 15 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 39 | 89 |
| 25 | Colorado Avalanche | 16 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 33 | 88 |
| 26 | Dallas Stars | 14 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 30 | 88 |
| 27 | Carolina Hurricanes | 14 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 36 | 78 |
| 28 | Florida Panthers | 12 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 31 | 77 |
| 29 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 26 | 66 |
| 30 | Buffalo Sabres | 16 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 17 | 59 |
LHH Points: Regulation win = 6 points; OT W = 4; shootout = 3; OT L = 2; Reg. Loss = 0
LHH Rating: An index based on the winning percentages of opponents. 100 is average.
Frankly, I'm a bit surprised at how high the Isles shot up (from 20th last week). The wins against the Ducks (OT) and Kings (skills competition) don't even get the Isles full credit with our method. But just playing good teams and getting any sort of result against them (as well as beating the Coyotes in regulation), all on the road, has finally brought the Isles' average level of competition up. Their above-.500 record takes care of the rest.
That's all for now. I'm getting married in a week and a half, so it's back to deciding on songs for the DJ. But I'll give you something to chat about... Is there any team in our rankings whose position you strongly disagree with?
Stick tap to Steven Colbert, whose book title I plagiarized the hell out of.
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