NHL Power Rankings: On the Prowl

We’re back for the second installment of our NHL Power Rankings, and it’s my turn to take a crack at this. I agreed with a lot of AJ’s rankings from last week honestly, but I’m certain we’ll have some differences of opinion this week. 

I’m going to *try* and not be too wordy on my explanations for why I have teams ranked where they are… but for anyone that listens to our podcast, we say all the time “ok, gonna try and keep this short” and we never do, so we’ll see how this goes.

1. Florida Panthers (10-2-1, 21 Points) – Florida and Carolina have easily been the best two teams in the league out of the gates. When they played this past week, I made the mistake of betting on Carolina, who got beat down by a Panthers team that just overwhelmed them early in the game. A statement win puts them at #1 for me.

2. Calgary Flames (7-2-3, 17 Points) – a 10-game point streak, including a 6-0 pounding of the New York Rangers. This Flames team almost looks as good as the one that got mauled by the Avs in the playoffs in 2019, he says, with a smirk.

3. Washington Capitals (6-2-4, 16 Points) – Ok hear me out, I know they’ve dropped a couple of games in the past week, but the losses were to real quality opponents and I just love the way this team plays every single year. Watching Alex Ovechkin go off to start the year has been a blast too, if he keeps this up, put them right up there with the top contenders in the league as far as I’m concerned.

4. Carolina Hurricanes (10-1-0, 20 Points) – They got thumped by Florida and lost backup goaltender Antti Raanta in the process, but they are still playing great hockey and look like a true contender. The Bunch of jerks are no longer just a feel-good story for the NHL.

5. Edmonton Oilers (9-2-0, 18 Points) – This one pains me. I’ve always felt that they could just change their name to the Edmonton McDavids and it would be a more accurate representation of their team. But how can you argue right now, this team is rolling. I still have major questions about their defense and goaltending, I just don’t think they’re good enough in those areas to truly compete, but they’re making it look easy right now, especially on the power play.

6. Toronto Maple Leafs (7-2-1, 15 Points) – After a slow start, their superstar forwards are starting to come to life and helped Toronto rattle off five straight before finally dropping one to the Los Angeles Kings.

7. Anaheim Ducks (7-4-3, 17 Points) – AJ rewarded the Buffalo Sabres last week in this spot for exceeding preseason expectations, and I’m doing the same thing with the Ducks. A surprisingly nice start for them. And I’ve gotta show some love for fellow Highlands Ranch High School alum Troy Terry who is on a 12-game point streak, and has 16 points in 14 games.

8. New York Rangers (7-3-3, 17 Points) – So, right now it looks like as long as the Rangers aren’t playing the Flames, they’re in pretty good shape. Still think they have a ways to go before they’re real contenders, but it’s an encouraging start for the Blueshirts either way.

9. Columbus Blue Jackets (7-3-0, 14 Points) – Seeing as I cover the Colorado Avalanche, I got an up-close look at CBJ this past week. They compete. Hard. This has been a hallmark of that organization for years now, able to overcome a roster that doesn’t feature much high-end talent by just out skating quality opponents.

10. Tampa Bay Lightning (6-3-3, 15 Points) – They get a nice bump in my rankings given how they’ve played in the last week. Their only losses came in overtime to Toronto and Carolina, so they still got points and have really pulled themselves out of poor early-season play.

11. Philadelphia Flyers (6-2-2, 14 Points) – I will admit, I haven’t been able to catch a ton of Flyers hockey so far this season, but they have been fun every time I have been able to watch a game of theirs. They are scoring goals in bundles right now.

12. St Louis Blues (8-2-1, 17 Points) – They’re fine, a good record at the start of the season always helps. But they’ve had a pretty soft schedule, and they have absolutely feasted on opponents with depleted rosters. But wins are wins, and they have eight of them in their first 11 games.

13. Winnipeg Jets (6-3-3, 15 Points) – Go back to last week and read AJ’s explanation for the Jets being at 13 in his rankings. I feel like nothing has changed in a week. Beating teams they should, and putting up some goals (minus being shut out by a defensively savvy Islanders team).

14. Minnesota Wild (8-3-0, 16 Points) – Look, they’re winning games. But they remind me of the Wild from last year. Really high-event hockey and the puck is bouncing their way every single time right now. They’re literally a couple bounces away from being off to a very different-looking start.

15. Vegas Golden Knights (7-6-0, 14 Points) – This ranking is probably way too high given their record, but when you pull off the biggest trade of the season for a bonafide superstar Center without giving up anything from your active (Alex Tuch was injured when they traded him) roster, you get a Power Rankings bump.

16. Detroit Red Wings (7-5-2, 16 Points) – What I like about the Red Wings (a weird sentence), is that they are obviously still a young team, who’ll likely be on the outside looking in come April, but they compete hard and have had some fun games against top teams early on.

17. San Jose Sharks (7-4-1, 15 Points) – After a really good start, things are beginning to normalize to what we kind of expected. They’re still in the top half of the league from a points perspective, but I anticipate that to slip away sooner rather than later.

18. Pittsburgh Penguins (4-3-4, 12 Points) – Putting them maybe a touch higher than they deserve, but they’ve played through sooooo many injuries early on, that them having any wins is impressive to me.

19. New York Islanders (5-3-2, 12 Points) – Underperforming. But maybe that’s on me for having too high of expectations for the regular-season version of Islanders.

20. New Jersey Devils (6-3-2, 14 Points) – Playing without Jack Hughes hurts, but this is yet another team that is rebuilding, but is managing to play some decent hockey. I don’t think the goaltending holds up the deeper we get into the season.

21. Los Angeles Kings (7-5-1, 15 Points) – After a really bad 1-5-1 start, they’ve bounced back in a big way with five straight wins. So, why so low on the rankings you ask? Mostly because this is largely what I expect from them all season. Stretches of good, followed by stretches of really bad. Not really what you’d call a recipe for success.

22. Buffalo Sabres (5-5-2, 12 Points) – So they got some love last week for exceeding expectations… they haven’t won since.

23. Nashville Predators (6-5-1, 13 Points) – Matt Duchene is off to a good start, but if you’re going to try and ride to the playoffs with Duchene driving the bus… good luck.

24. Colorado Avalanche (4-5-1, 9 Points) – Boom! Homer pick. I’m giving them a small bump in the rankings since they’re going to get the chance to play with close to a fully healthy roster for the first time this season. It’s always encouraging when you can say without a doubt you’re playing poorly, but have still found a way to get some points. They’ve got games in hand on almost every Western Conference opponent as well.

25. Boston Bruins (5-4-0, 10 Points) –  Fewest games played in the NHL. They’ve had a pretty tough schedule to start as well. Still, an uncharacteristic start given what we’ve come to expect from the B’s. Is father time finally catching up with a roster that has been near the top of the NHL for a decade?

26. Vancouver Canucks (5-6-2, 12 Points) – Where would this team be without Thatcher Demko? Probably further down on this list, as well as the NHL standings. But I definitely appreciate them exploding for six goals on Sunday, I had VAN/DAL over 5.5 as the final win of a five-leg parlay that paid out real nice. 

27. Dallas Stars (4-5-2, 10 Points) – It’s November 10th, and Dallas doesn’t have a regulation win. Like, they’re just a couple bounces away from being the Arizona Coyotes.

28. Montreal Canadians (3-10-1, 7 Points) – We all knew how history would remember their run to the Stanley Cup Finals, and we all know that this roster is definitively worse than what they had last season. Good on Carey Price for steeping away to get the help he needs though. I’ve always liked him, and now have even more of a reason to. Rooting for that guy BIG TIME.

29. Arizona Coyotes (1-10-1, 3 Points) – That’s right, I did it. A team with one win ISN’T 32nd in my power rankings. They’re playing super hard, and you could just feel that win coming. They earned it too.

30. Ottawa Senators (3-8-1, 7 Points) – I wanted to put them higher on this list, I really did. But my goodness, they are just hemorrhaging goals right now giving up 20 (!!!) in their last four games. For any of you wondering, that’s not good. Like really not good.

31. Seattle Kraken (4-8-1, 9 Points) – So far this season has been exactly what I expected for them. That roster just is not built to compete, and Philip Grubauer has struggled mightily. I expected him to regress from his last couple of seasons with a much better Avalanche team, but this is getting rough.

32. Chicago Blackhawks (3-9-2, 8 Points) – I thought the moves they made in the summer sucked, they got a false sense of confidence by being semi-competitive in the West Division last season and made a bunch of moves for guys that haven’t been great on their own since 2018. Their front office has been cleared out (unfortunately, 10 years too late), and this past week they fired their entire coaching staff. Given how they’ve played, I’m shocked they have any wins.

Honorable Mentions

For those of you that know me, or listened to our show back when it was the BSN Avalanche Podcast, you know that I’m a huge Marvel fan. And with Eternals coming out last week, I thought it would be an appropriate time to give my Power Rankings of MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies. Yes, all 26 of them. I’m choosing to omit any of the MCU projects that have been Disney+ exclusives. I think they’ve all been really good, but they’re definitely a different type of watch. Again, these are power rankings. I’m ranking these based on plot, fun, and re-watchability. I’m sure this won’t be controversial.

1. Avengers: Infinity War – To me, this movie stands alone in the Super Hero genre. This film grips you from the minute one, all the way through the mid-credit scene. Just an incredible movie.

2. Thor: Ragnarok – This movie is a blast to watch. It’s got lots of humor, a fantastic storyline, great characters, and is visually stunning.

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – This is a movie I could watch over and over. Phenomenal character development, and a plot that redefined what makes a great super hero film. If you’re trying to get someone who is unsure into the MCU, this would be a good one to start with.

4. Iron Man – The one that started it all. Just an absolute classic. This movie set the tone for the entire MCU, I remember leaving the theatre thinking how above and beyond it was versus all of the movies we had seen in this genre pre-2008.

5. Avengers: Endgame – The finale to a 23 movie collection. Lots of pressure to do it right and give the proper ending to a complex storyline, and they nailed it. The run time is right at three hours, and honestly it could’ve been longer and nobody would have complained.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy – When Marvel first announced this one, my first thought was “running out of A-list characters, eh?”, oh how wrong I was. This movie is such fun ride, and it features one of the all-time great soundtracks. I often say, this movie is what everyone wanted the latest Star Wars Trilogy to be. 

7. Spider-Man: Homecoming – This movie features probably the best plot twist in all of the MCU. The movie is executed perfectly from start to finish. Tom Holland was born to play Peter Parker.

8. Ant-Man – Similar to Guardians, Ant-Man was one that I was very skeptical of at first. But this movie is cast perfectly, and features really fun character arc. Also, anything with Paul Rudd is probably going to be pretty good.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 – This is where it starts getting tough for me, so many quality films make up this middle chunk. But Guardians 2 does so many of the same good things that the first GotG installment does, which is usually hard for a sequel to do. Also, baby Groot is adorable.

10. Spider-Man: Far From Home – The first film after the epic finale of Avengers: Endgame. I was worried there would be a let-down after so much build-up to Endgame, but it picks up right where we leave Endgame, and does a fantastic job of setting up what is coming after. Major spoilers in this one though if you haven’t seen the others. So I wouldn’t recommend starting here.

11. Captain Marvel – Here is probably the first one that a lot of people will disagree with me on. But I thought this movie built a great backstory, was really fun and funny, and I think Brie Larsen kicks ass as Carol Danvers.

12. Avengers: Age of Ultron – This one is more about the villain than anything else for me. Ultron has always been such an awesome character, and Marvel did a great job bringing him to life. It was such a shame that we only go to see him in one movie, I was happy Marvel took advantage of their animated “What If” show to give us a larger glimpse into what this character is all about.

13. Captain America: Civil War – I always forget this one is actually part of the Captain America trilogy. The story is phenomenal, and it sets up so many storylines perfectly. 

14. Doctor Strange – This movie definitely has a little bit more of a “serious” tone, in a good way. I think I’ve always had a larger appreciation for this movie because of its overall message.. it’s not about you.

15. Captain America: The First Avenger – Look, it’s a World War I action movie that introduces Captain America. Does that not just sound amazing written down? But for real, this movie puts a really fun twist on an actual historical event that most everybody has some level of knowledge of. In my opinion, if you are going to watch all of the MCU movies, do it in chronological order and start here.

16. Black Panther – Ok, I know I have this way lower than most people. Here’s my reasoning, I have never been a big fan of Michael B Jordan, I just really did not care for the way he played Killmonger. I love the plot, and Chadwick Boseman is amazing in this movie. I just never thought the way Michael B Jordan played his character matched the overall feel. It’s still an amazing film, but it’s just one of those weird irrational quirks that I can’t get past.

17. The Avengers – Honestly, this is one of the very few MCU movies that feels like a traditional, old-school superhero movie to me. It’s a really fun watch, and it really is pretty amazing if you think about it from the standpoint of, they took multiple characters that had their own stand-alone movies and found a way to put six main characters perfectly together at once. 

18. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – When I first saw this one, I couldn’t decide how I felt about it. But when I watched it for a second time, I really really enjoyed it. Marvel takes kung-fu movie classics, and mold it perfectly into the very modern MCU. Does a really good job of pushing the overall story forward, while also giving you good backstory.

19. Iron Man 3 – A great theme. There’s a lot of people that don’t care for the big plot twist, it never really bothered me. I just love the storyline and showing that everybody struggles with their demons, and that it is possible to overcome them.

20. Ant-Man and the Wasp – This movie’s sole purpose is to set up one very particular, key detail. And it finds a way to even make that an enjoyable watch.

21. Black Widow – My only real issue with this movie was when it actually came out. The story fit perfectly, and it did a great job of filling in plot holes. I honestly just wish it would’ve come out at a more relevant time. 

22. Iron Man 2 – Iron man is probably my favorite character in this universe. Robert Downey Jr is just perfect in the role, so I’ll always watch these.

23. Thor: The Dark World – The early Thor movies really struggled to figure out what exactly they were. Fun characters so they’re very watchable, just not as re-watchable as many of the other MCU movies.

24. Eternals – So this has a bit of an asterisk, seeing as I‘ve only seen it once. But on the first watch, it was just kind of hard to follow. It jumped around a lot, and tried to fit in the backstory of 10 characters into one movie. Looked amazing visually, and had some really great new characters that I hope to get to see more of, because they were all fighting for screen time.

25. Thor – See #23

26. The Incredible Hulk – This is one of those ones kind of like Black Panther. Hulk/Bruce Banner is the only stand-alone main character recast in the whole series, and I just can’t get past it. It’s a classic Hulk backstory, so that’s fun.

If you made it this far, I honestly can’t believe it. Thank you for reading, and I promise the next time I do power rankings it won’t be this long.