Power Rankings - Week 5 (take 2)

Enable GingerOk, so the first attempt at this week's power rankings broke the site.

I'm not sure what happened, but here they are: Power Rankings Week 5

There's a new feature this week - I added the teams records from their last 10 games. This will hopefully provide additional clarity regarding who's hot and who's not. 

Teams seem to have split off into 1 of three groups: Contenders (MTL, OTT, LAK, WPG, CGY), Middle Men (EDM, PIT, DET, TBL, WSH), and Tankers (NYR, MIN, COL, PHI, VAN, CHI).

NYR is by far the best of the worst. Playing the occasional spoiler role to the upper-tier teams. A sign that the rebuld is coming along nicely.

COL and PHI have been attached at the hip for the last 3 weeks. They are built similarly, so that might explain it. Still, it will be interesting to see who pulls away first. 

VAN and CHI - same old, same old, amiright? Wake me up when the Draft Lottery is here.

Last of this goup - MIN, who seemed to think it was 1986 again. Going 0-3-0 this week, with only 3 GF. Talk about your meltdowns. 

Onto the next group - the top-tier teams. 

Speaking of meltdowns, LAK... 2-1-1 this week. Not great, Not terrible. But enough to drop them a few spots.

WPG on the other hand, didn't drop so much as they were passed by teams having better weeks. I could have placed them in 3rd. As OTT didn't have very tough competition this week. However, the regulation loss to DET sealed 4th place for WPG this week. Still, at 1st overall in GA, no one is ruling them out as contenders.

OTT as mentioned above did well this week against mediocre competiton. They are 8-1-1 in their last 10, and 2nd overall in GA. They definitely aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but do they have enough moxie to challenge MTL for the top spot?

MTL had to claim the top spot this week. Even though, it could have also gone to CGY. CGY is undefeated in regulation in their last 10 games, however it took a shootout to dispatch LAK, whereas MTL took them out in regulation. Both MTL and CGY have great records over their last 10 games, but MTL had to remain in 1st overall as they faced tougher competition and still came out on top.

Now we get to the middle-men. These teams were the hardest to rank, because they all have very similar records. There is only 6 points difference between them.

That said, I'll start with TBL, who fell out of the top row this week. While they could very well bounce back (and if history has shown us anything, they will) they didn't beat the top-row teams this week. They kept the games close, and they are 6-4-0 in their last 10, but they need to find that consistency to keep up with the top-tier teams.

That said, EDM could very well fall out, depending on how this next week goes. They were 2-2-0 this week, which isn't terrible, and there is no shame losing to MTL, but that loss to NYR might come back to haunt them. Those are the games they need to win to stay in the top-row. Now, I'm sure they are in no danger of falling out of playoff contention. However, having drawn LAK in the first round the last two years, perhaps they would hope for a more favorable matchup this time around.

DET made it back to the top-row, but for how long? Another team trying to find that consistency. Being able to dispatch OTT and WPG this week moved them back up into the top-row. That OT loss to WSH hurt though, as they are battling for the 4th playoff spot. Those are considered "4-point" games and you absolutely need to win those in regulation. That said, DET had the toughest schedule this week, BY FAR, and they did decently well. Let's see what next week brings...

WSH could very well move up next week. They are on the cusp. 5-5-0 in their last 10, so they could be poised for a winning (or losing ) streak. They did beat DET in OT this week but, as a playoff contender, you are supposed to. They kept things close vs OTT, but their blowout against WPG is ultimately what keeps them in the bottom row this week. 

Finally PIT, another enigma. They were not significantly better than the other middle teams this week. They squeezed a point out of OTT and kept it close with WPG. They did have 3 wins this week (against bottom-tier teams) and it's important to win the games you're supposed to. However, they will need to pull off at least one win against a top-tier team to keep their place.

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