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Last week, I wrote about how the opinion polls ranked the Rangers significantly higher than the Isles more often than not, despite the fact that the Isles had a better record (being three points behind the Rangers, but having three games in hand).
This week? Not so much.
After defeating the Rangers at MSG and the Penguins at Barclays (and getting three out of six points in other games over the past week), all is now right with the universe, as most lists have the Isles 9th, while the Rangers are usually 10th and the Pens 14th or 15th.
Weekly Roundup of Opinion Polls
Site | Updated | New Ranking | Prior Ranking | Comments |
CBS | 3/15/2016 | 9 | 11 | The Isles have won eight of their last 11 games and now sit just one point behind the Rangers with two games in hand. Losing goalie Jaroslav Halak long-term to injury remains a big concern, though. |
ESPN | 3/14/2016 | 9 | 10 | The Islanders are 7-2-1 in their past 10. Jaroslav Halak will be sidelined at least six weeks with a lower-body injury, which means Thomas Greiss should see the bulk of action between the pipes. Captain John Tavares became the first member of the 2009 draft class and the 11th player in franchise history to reach the 200-goal plateau. |
TSN | --- | --- | 10 | Bye week. |
THN | 3/9/2016 | 3 | 10 | No specific comments. Isles in the "Cream of the Crop" (Top 10) section. |
SI | 3/15/2016 | 9 | 9 | The Isles are 8-2-1 in their past 11 and closing quickly on the Rangers and the second spot in the Metropolitan Division. Thomas Greiss stole two points for them against the Panthers on Monday night. He'll need to play at that level, or something close to it, for this team to have a chance down the stretch. |
Average | 7.5 | 10 | Halak of concern, despite Halak of winning. |
That being said, the Isles moved up only one spot on most lists. Note that Fox Sports, which hasn't updated their power rankings in over a month, has been replaced by THN (stick tap to @meyersMMA35 on Twitter, who suggested their weekly article). Apparently, they're very good at updating their page. Unfortunately, they update later today, and this article can't wait for the new data, so their opinions will be slightly behind the curve.
Anyway, our rankings have the Isles down one spot, as the victory over the Rangers was already factored into the prior week's rankings. They were still over NHL .500, but with a little less luster.
LHH Power Rankings
Games through 3/14/16, so that "other" game against the Pens doesn't factor in.
(6) | (4) | (3) | (2) | (0) | |||||
Reg | OT | OT | Reg | LHH | LHH | ||||
GP | W | W | SO | L | L | Pts | Rating | ||
1 | Washington Capitals | 68 | 40 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 283 | 124.7 |
2 | Dallas Stars | 70 | 33 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 20 | 248 | 112.9 |
3 | Chicago Blackhawks | 70 | 31 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 23 | 238 | 110.4 |
4 | Los Angeles Kings | 68 | 29 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 22 | 232 | 109.9 |
5 | New York Islanders | 67 | 31 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 21 | 231 | 109.2 |
6 | San Jose Sharks | 68 | 30 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 24 | 224 | 108.9 |
7 | St. Louis Blues | 71 | 29 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 21 | 239 | 108.7 |
8 | New York Rangers | 69 | 32 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 24 | 230 | 107.5 |
9 | Anaheim Ducks | 68 | 33 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 21 | 237 | 107.4 |
10 | Florida Panthers | 69 | 30 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 22 | 226 | 107.4 |
11 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 69 | 30 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 24 | 230 | 106.1 |
12 | Boston Bruins | 70 | 30 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 24 | 226 | 105.2 |
13 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 68 | 30 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 24 | 222 | 104.0 |
14 | Nashville Predators | 70 | 31 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 22 | 226 | 102.5 |
15 | Colorado Avalanche | 70 | 30 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 31 | 205 | 100.9 |
16 | Philadelphia Flyers | 67 | 21 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 23 | 199 | 100.7 |
17 | Minnesota Wild | 69 | 30 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 27 | 209 | 100.0 |
18 | Detroit Red Wings | 69 | 23 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 24 | 207 | 99.6 |
19 | New Jersey Devils | 70 | 22 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 30 | 194 | 96.4 |
20 | Carolina Hurricanes | 69 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 26 | 194 | 95.1 |
21 | Montreal Canadiens | 69 | 25 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 31 | 188 | 93.5 |
22 | Buffalo Sabres | 70 | 23 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 33 | 180 | 91.8 |
23 | Winnipeg Jets | 69 | 25 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 35 | 177 | 91.5 |
24 | Ottawa Senators | 70 | 21 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 30 | 186 | 91.1 |
25 | Arizona Coyotes | 69 | 24 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 32 | 182 | 89.1 |
26 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 69 | 22 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 33 | 171 | 88.6 |
27 | Vancouver Canucks | 68 | 19 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 29 | 169 | 88.1 |
28 | Calgary Flames | 69 | 18 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 35 | 162 | 85.5 |
29 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 68 | 16 | 1 | 12 | 5 | 34 | 146 | 83.4 |
30 | Edmonton Oilers | 72 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 38 | 155 | 79.9 |
The Isles are still in a lofty place, and again probably a bit higher than they deserve to be, thanks to stellar goal tending (but that never stopped other teams from showing up higher than they should be, so I make no apologies). I'll leave it at that, for now. We just agreed to purchase a house and I have a metric ton of paperwork to fill out. But leave questions in the comments. I'll get to them at night.
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