Puck Daddy Power Rankings: Marty St. Louis struggles, Michel Therrien’s problems

[Author's note: Power rankings are usually three things: Bad, wrong, and boring. You typically know just as well as the authors which teams won what games against who and what it all means, so our moving the Red Wings up four spots or whatever really doesn't tell you anything you didn't know. Who's hot, who's not, who cares? For this reason, we're doing a power ranking of things that are usually not teams. You'll see what I mean.] 

10. Sore losers

Russia didn't win the gold medal game so they left the ice to cry about it instead. They're the worst.

9. Martin St. Louis

While everyone has been busy talking about what a big-time loser idiot Rick Nash has been for the Rangers in this postseason (unfairly), no one seems to be batting an eye at the fact that 92-year-old Marty St. Louis has been overpaid hot garbage for the Rangers.

In exchange for their $5.625 million against the cap this year, the Rangers got possession well below even, a hugely percentage-fueled 52 points and a pathetic playoff performance.

No goals despite mega-easy usage? Check. Three shots on goal in his last four games? Check. Literally zero criticism of his play this entire time? Check.

Maybe people are ready to give him a pass because he's going to be 40 in a month, but hey, if we're saying the Rangers offense has been bad, St. Louis is a big reason why. Alain Vigneault has to stop putting him in positions to succeed and try things out with Rick Nash getting the 5-on-3 minutes instead.

8. Getting the band back together

The Bruins' GM search involves input from Harry Sinden? Good lord. They apparently want this to go as poorly as possible, don't they?

7. The Glendale situation

So, like, is the team leaving or what? Probably they are, right? But only like four years from now or something? If they lose $50 million, maybe? It's hard to keep it all straight, but this quote from Glendale vice mayor Ian Hugh is just amazing:

“I asked our finance director...if the hockey team packed up and left the next day, what would be the impact, and the answer was an $8.5 million windfall profit for us," Hughes said. "We increased sales tax to the citizens to cover this (arena management deal). We have needs in law enforcement and our fire department that we can't fund. We had to put off purchasing of new pumpers for the fire department. We have three libraries in Glendale and all of their hours have been cut way back."

Now, those numbers don't seem to be exactly right if you read the actual piece, but the larger point stands: Who could have imagined giving all that money to a money-losing club for no reason would have been a bad idea for a bankrupt city? A shocking development, really.

6. Michel Therrien

Michel Therrien is not a good coach. The system he plays does not improve possession; in fact, it mostly seems to hinder it.

You'll notice his teams don't spend a lot of time in that light blue area (you'll also notice the systematic deconstruction of the Penguins as a fundamentally competitive team over the last few years). Now, he took over a Montreal team that was certainly in dire straits, but he hasn't really done much to improve it save for the most recent stretch. And you'd be wise to bet that this bout of improved possession is the outlier in a career spent well below 50 percent.

(And for a more detailed and uglier look at his time with Montreal specifically, Eyes on the Prize's Andrew Berkshire provides this rather unflattering chart.)

His career number in Pittsburgh was an appalling 46.23 percent. His number in his return to Montreal is 48.85 percent (mostly due, I'd think, to having a better roster to work with). In both those stints combined, it's 47.59 percent. That's the level he's on. And it's not a good one.

So the nicest thing you could say about Therrien these days, really, is that he let Carey Price get him to the second round again. But Montreal also wasted one of the three or four best years in goaltending history with Therrien as the coach. Oops.

5. Alex Ovechkin

One of these days, he's gonna get to play a goalie other than Henrik Lundqvist in the playoffs. One of these damn days.

4. Dave Hakstol/Ron Hextall (Dronave Hekxstoll?)

If nothing else, this probably buys Ron Hextall a little more time as the GM of the Flyers, even if he doesn't deserve it.

Dave Hakstol has been an excellent NCAA coach for years, making the Frozen Four seven times in 11 seasons, even if he never won a national title. This isn't good enough for some people — i.e. North Dakota fans who think it's their birthright to have a racist mascot and also win the big one every year — and Hakstol has long heard cries to fire him from the local populace. Things might actually be easier to deal with in Philadelphia.

And look, Hakstol's a great coach, a proven developer of talent. He's shown that much. If you were going to go “off the board,” so to speak, and pick a coach from outside the ranks of those with AHL or NHL experience, he really ought to have been near the top of the list. For all the talk about “This guy is going straight to the NHL from college, and that's bad!” no one really has similar things to say about the jump from major junior to the NHL.

Can you reasonably expect Hakstol to turn things around given the makeup of the Flyers' roster as it stands right now? Nah. But a year or two down the road, for a coach new to the pro level? Sure, he might start to show an impact. Good for Hextall, who really should never have gotten this job in the first place.

I just can't believe Ed Snider allowed this to happen.

3. Being little

You may not have heard about this, but Tyler Johnson is very small. That's why he wasn't drafted! And he's good in the NHL today. So now who's laughing? It's Tyler Johnson, the little guy who wasn't drafted at all but has put up a lot of points at the NHL level. That's who!

Huh, maybe this will mean that guys who are small aren't necessarily undervalued in the NHL any more. Wow, it only took 100 years!

2. The Oilers

Boy it's amazing what news of getting Connor McDavid will do for a franchise.

The Oilers went from spinning their tires despite the roof of the car being under a solid foot of septic mud to, “Oh hey, maybe we need to manage this team correctly.” So they immediately went out and got a non-incompetent team president (so long, Kevin Lowe), a proven good general manager who might have learned something from the things that got him fired from his last job (so long, Craig MacTavish), and now an actual good coach with a proven track record of playing hockey in a way that's conducive to winning a lot.

Hmm. Awesome turnaround to witness for a long-suffering franchise that everyone in the media hates to see succeed because of how poorly it's been run in the past. Now it's actually going to be run well.

Maybe under this new regime Justin Schultz will get the usage he deserves, Taylor Hall won't have to get pelted with rotten fruit when he walks down the street despite being the best left wing alive, and someone will actually make good personnel decisions with regularity.

Now all they need are four NHL-level defensemen, a goalie, and a bottom six. And honestly, it really is pretty easy not to screw that up.

1. Mike Babcock, still

The Magic Mike tour cames to a halt today, and it’s sad day for the fans of most teams who thought they might be in the running. But this was a nice bit of theater, and a way to drive the price up even more than it probably already should have been. This guy is a miracle worker, and he deserves all this.

But hey wasn't it telling that he made all these trips holding hands with Ken Holland to exchange long protein strings?

(Not ranked this week: Zamboni drivers in South Korea.

Groups are mostly set for the Olympics. South Korea is in Canada's group. And these guys will only have to resurface one side of the ice at the end of each period.)