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LHH Power Rankings: Fat Lady Warming Up Edition

The Isles need a miracle to make the playoffs, but they still deserve to be in them.

By ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles
and dosh garnet, people like us
and dosh garnet, people like us
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

To be honest, I thought I was going to be making "playing out the string" jokes about this article, but the Isles still technically have a chance at the playoffs, so there's that.

Weekly Roundup of Opinion Polls

Site Updated New Ranking Prior Ranking Comments
SportsNet 4/5/2017 14 17 ["Top Offseason Priority" Edition] "Did you hear? John Tavares can sign an eight-year contract extension on July 1. Kinda like a big deal in Brooklyn."
ESPN 4/3/2017 18 17 The Isles are still alive -- but barely, even in spite of Sunday's win over Buffalo. Good on coach Doug Weight's crew for gutting out with a nice win after learning that captain John Tavares is likely gone for the rest of the regular season at least after injuring a hamstring.
TSN 4/3/2017 20 19 Jaro Halak, back from a near three-month sentencing to the minors, has won all three of his late-season starts. Gives you pause for thought.
THN 4/5/2017 13 21 Five points out of a playoff spot with three games to go and no John Tavares. The Islanders have easily been one of the league’s biggest disappointments this season
Average 16.3 18.5 It's possible to jump 8 spots by being a complete disappointment.

THN has churned out some head-scratching comments lately. In last week's rankings, they mentioned that Andrew Ladd won the Cy Young Award. Seriously. So sure, why not move them to 13th despite the fact that they're likely going to miss the playoffs and are a disappointment this year (a very true statement, indeed)? I look forward to next week's article where they factor in the Underpants Gnomes.

LHH Power Rankings

For games through 4/5/17

LHH LHH
GP W L T Pts Rating
1 Washington Capitals 80 44 18 18 106 123.6
2 Pittsburgh Penguins 79 39 19 21 99 117.4
3 Columbus Blue Jackets 79 38 22 19 95 116.3
4 Minnesota Wild 80 40 25 15 95 115
5 New York Rangers 80 39 27 14 92 113.4
6 Chicago Blackhawks 80 37 22 21 95 112.1
7 Anaheim Ducks 80 39 23 18 96 111.9
8 Montreal Canadiens 80 33 25 22 88 107
9 Toronto Maple Leafs 79 32 25 22 86 105.3
10 San Jose Sharks 80 37 28 15 89 105.2
11 Boston Bruins 80 38 30 12 88 105.1
12 St. Louis Blues 79 36 29 14 86 105
13 Edmonton Oilers 79 34 26 19 87 105
14 Ottawa Senators 79 33 27 19 85 104.8
15 Nashville Predators 80 34 28 18 86 103.8
16 New York Islanders 79 30 29 20 80 103
17 Tampa Bay Lightning 79 29 30 20 78 101.1
18 Carolina Hurricanes 79 28 30 21 77 99.1
19 Calgary Flames 80 31 32 17 79 97.5
20 Winnipeg Jets 80 31 35 14 76 94.9
21 Buffalo Sabres 80 25 35 20 70 92.8
22 Los Angeles Kings 79 25 34 20 70 92.6
23 Philadelphia Flyers 80 24 33 23 71 92.3
24 Dallas Stars 80 28 36 16 72 91.7
25 Florida Panthers 79 21 35 23 65 88.3
26 Detroit Red Wings 80 16 36 28 60 85.5
27 New Jersey Devils 79 18 37 24 60 84
28 Vancouver Canucks 79 19 40 20 58 80.2
29 Arizona Coyotes 80 19 41 20 58 79.9
30 Colorado Avalanche 79 14 54 11 39 66.3

Sure, they haven't been very good lately, but the Isles are still in the top 16, and solidly above average. The fact that they're in the stacked Metro is really sinking their playoff hopes, much more so than their performance.

I said it last week, but since that article was completely in the shadow of bigger news (Tavares getting hurt, etc.), I'll say it again here: It doesn't matter how badly you think Snow or Capuano or ownership or various players performed their duties this year, the Isles were still good enough to be in the playoffs, if you take into account their strength of schedule. Put them in any other division, and they'd likely have a handful more points than they do now.

Yes, I know they actually played pretty well against the upper half of the Metro. It doesn't matter. They likely would have had more points if they played the Metro half as often and one of the other divisions twice as much.

No playoffs format is perfect. The NHL's is no exception.

By the time this article posts, the Isles might already be eliminated. Regardless, there will be one final article next week. Power rankings are only done for the regular season.