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What a difference a week or so makes. Riding their hot streak, the New York Islanders rose greatly in the opinion polls, and slightly in our own power rankings.
Weekly Roundup of Opinion Polls
| Site | Updated | New Ranking | Prior Ranking | Comments |
| CBS | 12/8/2015 | 6 | 10 | The Isles are gaining on the top dogs in the Metropolitan thanks to points in each of their last seven games. Even when New York hasn't been at its best, it seems to be in pretty much every game it plays. |
| ESPN | 12/7/2015 | 10 | 16 | The Islanders have earned points in seven consecutive games, going 5-0-2. They had a huge 2-1 shootout win over the Rangers at Barclays Center on Wednesday. |
| TSN | 12/7/2015 | 9 | 10 | Seven straight games without a regulation loss for the Islanders, who may be trying to navigate the Travis Hamonic trade waters, or they're just continuing to play him big minutes, nearly 24 minutes per game since the beginning of November. |
| Fox | 12/7/2015 | 6 | 16 | There you are Ryan Strome! He finally came out of Islander purgatory and saw some NHL time. He’s got five points in the six games he’s played since his return. So it’s no coincidence that New York is starting to turn their season around. This is a top team that is starting to click, and not many teams will want to face these guys. |
| USA Today | 12/7/2015 | 7 | 14 | Failing to close out games has haunted them at times, but they're still a team with a varied arsenal to get job done. |
| Average | 7.6 | 13.2 | Keep on keepin' on. |
Nothing bad mentioned anywhere, except USA Today's point on closing games out (still a bit of an issue this year, but far worse last year if I recall correctly). Also, Fox Sports and USA Today say they totally had rankings up last week, even though we didn't see them. Sure, guys.
LHH Power Rankings
For games through 12/7/15
| (6) | (4) | (3) | (2) | (0) | |||||
| Reg | OT | OT | Reg | LHH | LHH | ||||
| GP | W | W | SO | L | L | Pts | Rating | ||
| 1 | Montreal Canadiens | 28 | 17 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 116 | 129.3 |
| 2 | Dallas Stars | 27 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 116 | 127.1 |
| 3 | Washington Capitals | 25 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 105 | 117.6 |
| 4 | New York Rangers | 28 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 108 | 114.4 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Kings | 26 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 94 | 110.8 |
| 6 | New York Islanders | 28 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 97 | 107.9 |
| 7 | Boston Bruins | 26 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 83 | 106.5 |
| 8 | Minnesota Wild | 26 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 92 | 105.8 |
| 9 | St. Louis Blues | 27 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 92 | 102.4 |
| 10 | San Jose Sharks | 26 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 77 | 102.2 |
| 11 | Ottawa Senators | 27 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 82 | 101.9 |
| 12 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 26 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 80 | 101.1 |
| 13 | Nashville Predators | 27 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 89 | 101.0 |
| 14 | Winnipeg Jets | 28 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 81 | 101.0 |
| 15 | New Jersey Devils | 27 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 78 | 99.6 |
| 16 | Detroit Red Wings | 27 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 83 | 99.4 |
| 17 | Colorado Avalanche | 28 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 72 | 99.3 |
| 18 | Chicago Blackhawks | 27 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 82 | 98.8 |
| 19 | Arizona Coyotes | 27 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 76 | 97.8 |
| 20 | Florida Panthers | 27 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 76 | 97.0 |
| 21 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 28 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 79 | 95.5 |
| 22 | Vancouver Canucks | 29 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 74 | 93.4 |
| 23 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 27 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 62 | 92.4 |
| 24 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 28 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 67 | 91.5 |
| 25 | Philadelphia Flyers | 27 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 64 | 88.7 |
| 26 | Buffalo Sabres | 28 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 69 | 86.1 |
| 27 | Anaheim Ducks | 28 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 74 | 85.3 |
| 28 | Carolina Hurricanes | 27 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 63 | 85.1 |
| 29 | Edmonton Oilers | 28 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 61 | 82.6 |
| 30 | Calgary Flames | 26 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 50 | 78.6 |
The Isles' more modest jump in our own calculations is due to two main issues: (1) They were already ranked higher, so there's less room to rise, and (2) their shootout wins and losses all count as only half credit, in our system. So the rise looks far better in the Bettman Bonus Points System than it does here, where a shootout result is called for what it is: a game that couldn't be settled with actual hockey.
This week's opponents: the 25th-ranked Flyers (just scraped by!), followed by the 24th-ranked Blue Jackets, and 15th-ranked Devils. Given the relatively low strength of schedule, the Isles would have to win some games in regulation in order to keep up their pace.