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Well this is odd. I put this post together a day late because I had jury duty, so you'd think all the opinion polls would have been updated by now. Actually, only two have. CBS (who ranked the Isles 7th after the loss to the Rangers) and ESPN (who has them 4th prior to the Rangers game) were the only ones who bothered to put anything together.
Maybe they're going on strike as a protest to the fancy stats movement. Or maybe they have jury duty, too.
OK, so we'll skip right to our power rankings this time. Here they are, for all games through 2/17/15 (so it includes last night's win over Carolina).
GP | Reg W | OT W | SO | OT L | Reg L | LHH Pts | LHH Pct | LHH Rating | ||
1 | Nashville Predators | 57 | 28 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 12 | 223 | 0.652 | 121 |
2 | New York Rangers | 55 | 28 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 16 | 204 | 0.618 | 118 |
3 | Montreal Canadiens | 56 | 27 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 15 | 205 | 0.610 | 117 |
4 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 59 | 31 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 18 | 216 | 0.610 | 114 |
5 | Chicago Blackhawks | 57 | 25 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 18 | 193 | 0.564 | 114 |
6 | New York Islanders | 58 | 26 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 19 | 200 | 0.575 | 111 |
7 | St. Louis Blues | 57 | 26 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 16 | 203 | 0.594 | 111 |
8 | Washington Capitals | 58 | 25 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 17 | 196 | 0.563 | 111 |
9 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 57 | 24 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 16 | 196 | 0.573 | 111 |
10 | Anaheim Ducks | 57 | 23 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 15 | 198 | 0.579 | 110 |
11 | Detroit Red Wings | 55 | 25 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 200 | 0.606 | 109 |
12 | Vancouver Canucks | 56 | 25 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 183 | 0.545 | 107 |
13 | San Jose Sharks | 59 | 25 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 22 | 185 | 0.523 | 104 |
14 | Los Angeles Kings | 56 | 24 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 18 | 182 | 0.542 | 103 |
15 | Dallas Stars | 57 | 24 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 22 | 172 | 0.503 | 102 |
16 | Calgary Flames | 57 | 21 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 174 | 0.509 | 100 |
17 | Minnesota Wild | 56 | 24 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 21 | 174 | 0.518 | 99 |
18 | Boston Bruins | 56 | 20 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 20 | 171 | 0.509 | 99 |
19 | Winnipeg Jets | 59 | 20 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 19 | 178 | 0.503 | 97 |
20 | Florida Panthers | 56 | 19 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 19 | 165 | 0.491 | 94 |
21 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 58 | 19 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 30 | 140 | 0.402 | 92 |
22 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 55 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 27 | 139 | 0.421 | 92 |
23 | Philadelphia Flyers | 57 | 17 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 23 | 154 | 0.450 | 92 |
24 | Colorado Avalanche | 57 | 15 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 22 | 145 | 0.424 | 91 |
25 | New Jersey Devils | 57 | 17 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 26 | 142 | 0.415 | 87 |
26 | Ottawa Senators | 55 | 16 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 23 | 142 | 0.430 | 87 |
27 | Carolina Hurricanes | 56 | 15 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 29 | 125 | 0.372 | 83 |
28 | Arizona Coyotes | 58 | 13 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 31 | 121 | 0.348 | 77 |
29 | Edmonton Oilers | 58 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 32 | 106 | 0.305 | 75 |
30 | Buffalo Sabres | 57 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 37 | 86 | 0.251 | 69 |
The Isles rise slightly to a tie for sixth overall, following a span of a little over a week in which they went 4-1, with the only loss to... eh I forget. Anyways, the Preds remain on top. The Capitals and Penguins are two of three other teams with the same index score as the Islanders.
It's a bit surprising that the Blues aren't at least a little higher (has their schedule been a bit soft lately, Dom?), and the Kings are 14th, and yet they're outside the playoff bubble. While we're at it, both Boston (tied for 17th) and Florida (20th) are outside the top 16, and yet they're fighting for a playoff spot. At the other end, the Sabres' index number shows why their arena made it onto Dan's list.
That's all for now. The Isles could get a real boost with a win over the top team. To bad they never get to play each other. Oh wait...