Stars supplant Sens

By Jamie MacDonald, CNNSI.com

While the NHL season hit its turn weeks ago, breaking for the All-Star Game after as many as 53 games offers something almost more important, though more difficult to calculate, than mathematical symmetry: a dose of reality. The closer teams get to 70 games, the closer those in the high teens and early 20s will move toward elimination. For now, though, hope floats many clubs into the All-Star pause. We'll take a pause, too, in the Power Rankings, which will next post on Feb. 11.

NHL Power Rankings
Rank	LW		Team
1	2		Dallas Stars Yee-haw. A showdown … No. 1 vs. No. 2 on Power Rankings Eve. And in a back-and-forth affair, the Stars rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to beat Ottawa 5-3. Scott Young, whose game-winning goal streak ended at three, tied this one before Bill Guerin (so this is what all that money's for?) made it 4-3 and Mike Modano iced it with an empty-netter.
2	1		Ottawa Senators Until their loss in Big D, Ottawa hadn't lost a game it led after two periods since Jan. 20, 2002. It probably had also been a while since the Senators managed to score three goals on only 15 shots, as they did (Martin Havlat, actually) Monday night. If you need the Senators through the end of the month, they'll be hop-scotching around the Western Conference until the All-Star break.
3	5		New Jersey Devils Not 10 seconds after Sergei Brylin hit a crossbar in OT of the game in L.A., Ziggy Palffy teed up a slap shot that beat Martin Brodeur, thus concluding the Devils' six-game winning streak. Still, prior to home games against Detroit (Jan. 28) and Philadelphia (Jan. 30), they hadn't lost in regulation since Jan. 4.
4	3		Philadelphia Flyers Within their division, the Flyers are a modest 4-4-1-1, including a Jan. 24 loss on home ice to the Islanders, which was followed by a 1-0 OTL in Boston.
5	4		Vancouver Canucks Todd Bertuzzi did what he could on Jan. 21, taking over the third period with two goals in the midst of an otherwise forgettable 3-2 loss in Nashville. Bertuzzi scored in the Canucks' next game, too, but they went on to drop consecutive contests for the second time this month. A 1-0 home win over Phoenix ended their slide -- and Bertuzzi's goal-scoring streak.
6	7		Detroit Red Wings They're banged up, yes, but this is a team that, prior to its Jan. 28 game in New Jersey, hadn't won consecutive games since Boxing Day. To illustrate our point, the Wings beat the Canucks in Vancouver on Friday night but were shut down by the Flames the following night in Calgary. The former decision draws them a spot closer to the Canucks here, but the latter keeps them an inch behind.
7	6		St. Louis Blues In three consecutive losses over the past week-plus Brent Johnson gave up nine goals on 49 shots (.816 SP) and finished with a three-game GAA of just under 10. Believe it or not, some of those goals were, as goaltender sympathizers like to say, "shots he'd like to have back."
8	10		Minnesota Wild Minnesota and Edmonton have been jockeying for Nos. 8-10 for the past three weeks in our rankings, but we're giving the Wild this week's edge on the strength of their win total after 50 games (25 versus 23), their points per game (5.5 versus 5.06) and goal differential (plus-14 versus plus-2). The Wild also won two games last week, while the Oilers …
9	9		Edmonton Oilers ... won only one. It was a biggie, to be sure, against the Red Wings, but Detroit is alternating wins and losses these days and the Oilers seemed to catch them at the right time.
10	11		Washington Capitals This week's definition of feast or famine: Since the New Year, the Caps have averaged 6.4 goals in wins, 1.25 goals in losses (including in OT) and 2 goals in ties.
11	8		Toronto Maple Leafs There's an old saw about back injuries and sports. Seems Ed Belfour had been carrying the Maple Leafs for too long.
12	14		Boston Bruins Jeff Hackett is 6-foot-1, 195 pounds, was born in London, Ontario, and was drafted by the Islanders. He played for the Isles, Sharks and Blackhawks before a trade sent him to Montreal. We provide this information as a public service to Bruins fans, who are accustomed to getting at least a year out of their team's acquisitions before they become free agents.
13	17		Colorado Avalanche It's almost fun to think about bashing Patrick Roy, just to see how wrong he'll prove you. Last week we were about to shovel dirt on him, and he played very well against Dallas. This time around, we were about to make light of the fact that it was now February and Roy had only recently earned his first shutout. Then he goes and pitches another one on Hockey Night in Canada against the Maple Leafs.
14	13		New York Islanders Neither a ceremonial puck drop from Chad Pennington nor a near-brawl during warmups could push the Islanders past the arch-rival Rangers. Another loss, to Columbus, bookended the only good news on the ledger, their 3-1 win over the Flyers on Jan. 24.
15	16		Anaheim Mighty Ducks Humorous quote from the Los Angeles Times, which might have cleaned up hockey's colloquial, "fellas": "I don't know what Martin did to the fellows, but we've got to work something out," said coach Mike Babcock, in reference to the Ducks scoring three goals in backup goaltender Martin Gerber's five most recent starts.
16	18		Montreal Canadiens A team that ranks 18th in goals per game trades a very good goaltender for a pretty good two-way forward? After two games, the experiment is already paying dividends. On Monday the newly acquired Nicklas Sundstrom scored his third goal of the season in a 4-3, come-from-behind win over Chicago. The win extended Montreal's point streak to five games.
17	12		Chicago Blackhawks The Hawks, meanwhile, perhaps distracted by the extracurricular activities of some teammates, haven't seen a point since Jan. 15 and are on the road until Feb. 12.
18	19		Tampa Bay Lightning Bucs win! Bucs win! Now the good folks in Tampa can turn their attention to something that really gets 'em going … the Lightning. Three quick updates while you were busy watching the Super Bowl hype: John Grahame went 2-0-0 in two starts (he beat the Senators and Stars); Vincent Lecavalier scored in four of six games from Jan. 17-25 (and is five goals from setting a career high); and Tampa Bay lost only one of its previous four.
19	15		Pittsburgh Penguins Mario Lemieux was never much for speeding down the ice, so we hope when he returns that his ailing groin doesn't hinder his run at another scoring title.
20	20		New York Rangers The week started out so well, with a drubbing of the Isles 5-0 in Bryan Trottier's return to the Other Island on Jan. 21, and with a win in Nashville on Jan. 23 that brought them within two games of .500. Most of that was washed away, however, with an ugly Saturday loss to Atlanta and an even uglier Sunday loss in Washington.
21	21		Phoenix Coyotes Note to self: If ever you meet Zac Bierk, apologize for the Skid Row references. Find a different aging horse to beat. But we can't help ourselves … when we think of Bierk keeping the young Coyotes from falling way behind in the Western Conference playoff race, we're hearing the Youth Gone Wild.
22	25		Nashville Predators They might not have beaten former goaltender, Mike Dunham or the Rangers on Jan. 23, but they sure had a better week.
23	22		Columbus Blue Jackets Through 50 games, the Blue Jackets were the only team to have lost exactly half.
24	26		San Jose Sharks How Swede it is. First Ragnarsson, now Sundstrom. Essentially gaining them a McDefense, Dan McGillis, for the former and Kyle McLaren for the latter.
25	27		Calgary Flames It should be noted that while the Flames were hammered by the Coyotes on Thursday, they did finish off the Red Wings 4-1 on Saturday. Considering the way Calgary let the Oilers back into one the previous Monday, keeping Detroit off the board late was no small step for Flame-kind.
26	22		Los Angeles Kings That sinking feeling, after dropping two more last week, is the Kings slipping into the Pacific Division cellar. Don't blame Ziggy Palffy, though, who scored five goals in eight games dating back to Jan. 11.
27	24		Florida Panthers They'll limp into the break having won the smallest percentage of games after playing 50.
28	29		Buffalo Sabres Ryan Miller was the story two weeks ago, only to have Martin Biron enter in "relief" to throw another 222 minutes of shutout hockey.
29	30		Atlanta Thrashers Heatley and Kovalchuk combined to score 13 of the team's 27 goals in seven games from Jan. 13-25. In case you don't have a calculator handy, that's a team average of nearly four goals per game. As we all know, though, the Thrashers can be less than responsible in their own end.
30	28		Carolina Hurricanes Off the nine-game schneid with a W on Jan. 24 at home against the Panthers. Back on the schneid Jan. 25 with an OTL in Florida.

 

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