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LHH Power Rankings: What's in The Islanders' Stocking? Edition

Here's a hint: It's black and can keep your family warm when it's burning.

By ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles

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I asked for Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Me too! Me three!
I asked for Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Me too! Me three!
Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

This week, the opinion polls and power rankings chastise the Islanders the way a kid who's been great all year is told Santa's still watching and will totally not give you that ColecoVision in the closet if you don't clean your room before the relatives arrive, Mister!

And you're like, "But I've been good ALL YEAR! How does not making my room look presentable for the annual tour erase all of that life isn't fair and this is...."

Oh, sorry. Flashback. Where was I? Oh, right...

Weekly Roundup of Opinion Polls

Site Updated New Ranking Prior Ranking Comments
CBS 12/22/2015 5 5 The Isles are one point ahead of the Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division. They've won eight of their last 11 and broke out of an exremely brief scoring slump with five goals against the hapless Ducks.
ESPN 12/21/2015 14 2 After earning points in 10 consecutive games, the Islanders have dropped three in a row, including a 1-0 loss to the Coyotes on Saturday.
TSN --- --- 7 Out Christmas shopping.
Fox 12/21/2015 10 3 All of these nice things were said about the New York Islanders just last week, and they go and lose to the Florida Panthers, the Colorado Avalanche and the Arizona Coyotes. It almost feels dirty ranking them this high. But due to the implosion of several Eastern Conference teams, this is where the Islanders find themselves in the rankings.
USA Today 12/21/2015 8 7 The Christmas break comes at a perfect time for Kyle Okposo, as he'll likely only miss two games with a lower-body injury.
Average 9.3 4.8 You get coal. Shiney, hi quality coal, but coal nonetheless.

Here's a classic example of why I prefer a scoring system as opposed to opinions: Opinions weigh the most recent games far too heavily.

That's not to say the Islanders don't deserve to drop a bit, but the swings in ESPN and Fox are supposedly because they lost two games to teams on hot streaks, and a 1-0 contest to a team they should have beaten if not for their goalie standing on his head.

Of course, the power rankings don't take into account winning streaks of other teams, either, so how did the Isles fare there?

LHH Power Rankings

for games through 12/22/15

(6) (4) (3) (2) (0)
Reg OT OT Reg LHH LHH
GP W W SO L L Pts Rating
1 Dallas Stars 35 22 3 2 1 7 152 129.7
2 Washington Capitals 33 21 2 2 2 6 144 125.6
3 Boston Bruins 33 16 1 2 3 11 112 110.8
4 Montreal Canadiens 36 18 1 2 2 13 122 110.2
5 Minnesota Wild 33 17 1 0 6 9 118 109.6
6 St. Louis Blues 36 18 2 2 3 11 128 108.4
7 Los Angeles Kings 33 13 5 3 1 11 109 106.2
8 Florida Panthers 35 13 1 6 3 12 106 105.7
9 Colorado Avalanche 35 16 1 0 1 17 102 105.3
10 Mr. Scrooge 36 17 2 2 2 13 120 102.9
11 New York Islanders 35 15 2 4 3 11 116 102.8
12 San Jose Sharks 34 13 3 1 2 15 97 100.8
13 Nashville Predators 34 15 0 3 5 11 109 100.4
14 Chicago Blackhawks 36 13 6 1 4 12 113 99.2
15 Ottawa Senators 35 11 3 7 2 12 103 99.2
16 Detroit Red Wings 34 10 6 3 5 10 103 99.2
17 New Jersey Devils 35 10 5 6 1 13 100 97.0
18 Tampa Bay Lightning 35 13 3 3 1 15 101 96.9
19 Winnipeg Jets 34 14 1 1 1 17 93 96.4
20 Pittsburgh Penguins 33 12 3 3 1 14 95 96.3
21 Philadelphia Flyers 34 8 6 4 4 12 92 94.5
22 Toronto Maple Leafs 33 9 0 7 3 14 81 94.3
23 Arizona Coyotes 33 13 3 0 2 15 94 93.8
24 Vancouver Canucks 36 11 0 4 7 14 92 92.7
25 Calgary Flames 34 7 8 2 1 16 82 91.8
26 Buffalo Sabres 34 11 2 4 1 16 88 89.7
27 Edmonton Oilers 35 9 5 1 2 18 81 86.3
28 Carolina Hurricanes 34 9 4 1 4 16 81 86.2
29 Columbus Blue Jackets 36 11 1 2 2 20 80 85.1
30 Anaheim Ducks 33 11 0 2 5 15 82 82.9

Yeah, about that... Well, records in regulation are pretty damn important in our formula, and the Isles are now only four games over .500 in that department. While it's true that there are a few teams above them with worse regulation records, most of those teams are in tougher divisions, so any points they get against their rivals helps to elevate them. It also doesn't help that the Isles have yet to play the Capitals, who are far and away the class of the division at the moment. Points against them would help level the playing field.

So the Isles' fifth place showing last week was likely a bit of a mirage, as they had just won a bunch of games, but required overtimes/shootouts to do so. The Isles are still well above average, so I wouldn't worry too much going into the break. Your parents aren't going to bring the ColecoVision back anyway. They lost the receipt.

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