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LHH Power Rankings: Despite Being Rocked Like a Hurricane, Still Deserving of Playoffs

The Isles tumble in our rankings, but are still in the top 16.

By ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles
Does this make him a player-coach?
Does this make him a player-coach?
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

A much shorter article this week, as we focus on just the numbers. Thanks to all who put their two cents in regarding overtimes and shootouts.

The article will be even shorter than usual, as only two of our four tracked opinion polls have updated this week. Over on TSN, the Isles were ranked 18th, with the following comment:

One regulation win in the past six isn’t helping the Isles’ playoff push, and goaltender Thomas Greiss hasn’t been able to handle the weight of the starting role for a playoff contender. Incidentally, Jaroslav Halak has a .926 save percentage in 24 AHL games.

I'm not gonna talk about the goaltending.

I've always wanted to say that.

Meanwhile, THN ranks the Isles 17th and praises the Isles in picking and handling our 66:

Say what you will about Garth Snow, but they way the Islanders drafted and developed Josh Ho-Sang is a huge feather in the Islander GM’s cap.

Ever notice how any positive comments about Garth Snow start with "Say what you will about Garth Snow...."?

LHH Power Rankings

For games through the Ides of March, 2017 (so not counting what I hope will be the Isles' Brutus to the Jets' Ceasar):

LHH LHH
GP W L T Pts Rating
1 Washington Capitals 69 37 17 15 89 121
2 Minnesota Wild 68 36 19 13 85 119.4
3 Columbus Blue Jackets 68 34 18 16 84 118.6
4 Pittsburgh Penguins 68 33 17 18 84 115.7
5 New York Rangers 70 36 24 10 82 113.7
6 San Jose Sharks 69 35 20 14 84 112.1
7 Chicago Blackhawks 69 33 20 16 82 111.8
8 Ottawa Senators 68 31 22 15 77 108.5
9 Anaheim Ducks 69 32 22 15 79 107.9
10 Montreal Canadiens 70 28 23 19 75 105
11 Boston Bruins 69 32 26 11 75 104
12 Edmonton Oilers 69 27 24 18 72 103.6
13 St. Louis Blues 69 29 28 12 70 103.4
14 Nashville Predators 69 29 24 16 74 103
15 New York Islanders 69 27 25 17 71 102.8
16 Tampa Bay Lightning 69 26 26 17 69 102.4
17 Toronto Maple Leafs 68 24 23 21 69 100.1
18 Calgary Flames 70 27 27 16 70 99.8
19 Carolina Hurricanes 67 22 27 18 62 96.3
20 Buffalo Sabres 70 21 30 19 61 93
21 Los Angeles Kings 69 20 29 20 60 92
22 Florida Panthers 68 19 27 22 60 91.6
23 Winnipeg Jets 70 25 33 12 62 90.1
24 Philadelphia Flyers 69 20 29 20 60 89.8
25 Dallas Stars 69 24 32 13 61 89.4
26 Detroit Red Wings 67 15 31 21 51 87.6
27 New Jersey Devils 68 17 31 20 54 86.8
28 Vancouver Canucks 69 18 32 19 55 82.7
29 Arizona Coyotes 69 16 35 18 50 79.2
30 Colorado Avalanche 69 14 46 9 37 68.5

The Isles take a big drop because they don't know how to handle the Hurricanes. Doesn't help that the teams just above them were able to do some leap frogging with a few wins of their own. It's pretty tight from 10th to 17th right now. The Wild are closing in on the slumping Caps. If the Isles somehow made the finals, I'd love them to play the Wild, just to watch the absurd comparisons between Clutterbuck and Nino.

If all tied games ended in regulation, the Isles would be two points up on 9th place Tampa, so Bettman's loser point is still hurting the Isles more than helping them.

Speaking of which... My word, look at Colorado's record, made even worse in this case since their combined OT/SO record is 6-3.

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