NHL Power Rankings: Canucks hitting the skids

Hey everyone, we here at Yahoo! Sports are doing real power rankings for teams Nos. 1-31. Here they are, based on only how I am feeling about these teams, meaning you can’t tell me I’m wrong because these are my feelings and feelings can’t be wrong. Please enjoy the Power Feelings.

31. Los Angeles Kings (LW: 30)

Back at the bottom, baby. At least they now seem like they’re really trying to actually sell guys off; Tanner Pearson wasn’t the first guy I’d offload but getting back a guy on an expiring deal who will probably be worth a third-round pick at the deadline ain’t bad.

Now if only you could so something about all those no-move clauses.

30. Philadelphia Flyers (LW: 28)

I said the other day on Twitter that there’s no excuse for the Flyers to be as bad as they are, but I guess there is. The coaching isn’t doing them any favors but the bottom half of this roster kinda stinks and the goaltending definitely does.

Doesn’t explain why they’re not generating shots and their special teams specifically are so bad, but y’know.

29. Anaheim Ducks (Last week: 31)

28. Vancouver Canucks (LW: 21)

Hey remember when this team was first in the Pacific and people were like, “See? These kids might have something special going!” Yeah, see?

27. New York Rangers (LW: 29)

26. Detroit Red Wings (LW: 27)

Jimmy Howard is .922 and if Ken Holland is smart he gets traded before I finish typing this sentence. Sell high!

25. St. Louis Blues (LW: 24)

I had someone email me last week to say I never comment on the Blues in the Power Feelings, and just gloss over them, so this one’s for you buddy: This team is truly horrible and should have fired their coach two weeks ago. Thanks for the feedback.

24. Edmonton Oilers (LW: 23)

Speaking of which, someone’s getting fired this week. Probably Todd McLellan, probably not Peter Chiarelli. Maybe this is a take for later in the week but man these guys just don’t have it at all. It’s incredible.

23. Ottawa Senators (LW: 26)

22. New York Islanders (LW: 25)

21. Florida Panthers (LW: 20)

Starting to think Bob Boughner doesn’t have a ton of answers for these guys. If you had told me they’d be behind the Red Wings in the standings (albeit with three fewer games played) around Thanksgiving I would have laughed in your face. Dumb sport.

20. Chicago (LW: 22)

The fellas are 2-2-2 since getting a new coach. They’ve scored 10 goals in those six games. Allowed 14. Not good.

19. Arizona Coyotes (LW: 16)

18. Carolina Hurricanes (LW: 18)

17. New Jersey Devils (LW: 17)

These guys turned the corner from their season-opening run of success, into a run of abject failure. Now they’ve settled right into a comfortable run of “they’re fine” and that seems about right.

16. Pittsburgh Penguins (LW: 9)

I still think this group has a high ceiling but they ain’t gonna come close to hitting it without some health and goaltending. Not sure they can count on either! Very cool feeling, I bet.

15. Vegas Golden Knights (LW: 19)

14. Dallas Stars (LW: 14)

13. Washington Capitals (LW: 13)

12. Columbus Blue Jackets (LW: 12)

This is one of the quietest seven-game point streaks I can remember in the league. They’re 6-1-2 in November (not counting whatever last night’s result in Toronto was, because that’s not included in the Power Feelings, which run Monday to Sunday).

Maybe all those early concerns about Sergei Bobrovsky were a little premature: He’s .954 in six appearances so far this month, which if you ask me is pretty good.

11. Buffalo Sabres (LW: 15)

On the subject of hot streaks, Buffalo’s 6-2-0 in November too. Winners of five in a row. Only losses were on the road in a game where they outshot the Rangers 40-22 and the Sens 48-32.

So they don’t just get the results, they’re looking pretty good doing it. And three of the teams in this streak (the ones that put up good fights) were Tampa, Winnipeg, and Minnesota. Which is a good group to have beaten.

10. Montreal Canadiens (LW: 8)

Things are starting to fall apart a bit for the Habs even as they went 2-1 in Western Canada. They’ve given up at least 38 shots in each of their last four games and only cleared 30 themselves in one of them (Vancouver outshot them 38-31).

That feels… more correct? Like, they banked the wins and that’s fine but we all think this isn’t a good group, right?

9. Minnesota Wild (LW: 4)

Last week I said these guys might be for real but they’ve dropped three of the last four and the only win was against Vancouver. So maybe not.

Put another way: It’s probably easy to look good in a run against LA, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton, St. Louis, San Jose, LA again, Anaheim, and St. Louis again. Lots of should-wins, a few should-loses. Maybe one or two toss-ups.

I definitely think this is a playoff team now but that’s probably about it. The Bruce Boudreau Special.

8. Colorado Avalanche (LW: 11)

7. Boston Bruins (LW: 6)

6. Calgary Flames (LW: 10)

I love that Matt Tkachuk refused to fight Zack Kassian, a guy who shouldn’t be in the NHL who also outweighs him by 20 pounds. Kassian has one point in 17 games this year. He’s not worth engaging.

And if it pisses off the Edmonton media so bad that a certain Oilers Now host passive-aggressively grumbles to the coach about it, all the better.

Hockey would be a lot more entertaining with more Tkachuks and fewer Kassians, for sure.

5. Winnipeg Jets (LW: 7)

4. San Jose Sharks (LW: 5)

3. Toronto Maple Leafs (LW: 3)

Remember when Auston Matthews was maybe the best player in the world? Yeah dude now the Toronto media is saying maybe Mitch Marner is. Like, come on.

I know you have to be an absolutely credulous goober to be a radio guy in Toronto but jeez. If you turn out the lights in the studio do these guys think the sun went down or something?

And when you say this kind of thing, people go “Ah I guess you think Marner stinks,” and obviously no one thinks he stinks but good lord he’s not even the best guy on the Leafs. People got mad on Twitter when I said he wasn’t as good as Tavares but he isn’t, though the difference is pretty small these days. And Marner is trending up. And Tavares, given his age, is trending down.

If you wanna say he’s tied for second, okay fine. I disagree but I get it. But again these guys were saying Matthews was better than McDavid a friggin’ month ago, y’know? These goldfish-brained freaks. It’s too much, man.

Anyway yeah Marner’s gonna want Tavares money. Good luck with all of it.

2. Nashville Predators (LW: 1)

1. Tampa Bay Lightning (LW: 2)

It really feels like they’re just gonna flip-flop with Nashville all season.

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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