What a great first week of the season! We had games in Europe, as well as in North America. Every team has played at least three games, while others have played as many as six. While it’s still early in the season, evaluating teams over the last 10 days has allowed me to gauge where teams are, what they have to improve on, as well as who are the early season surprises. I hope that my preseason rankings are more of what will shake out over the course of the season, and not what I seen over the first week. ThisĀ could beĀ perhaps the best evaluation of the teams in relation to number of games played because of the fact some teams played as many as six games over the 10-day span. With the rest of the weekly rankings, teams could play as little as two, and no more than four games. I had a fan e-mail me asking why did I choose six teams for the weekly Top Six and Bottom Six and not a “more common” number like five? I figured since we had the Original Six in the NHL prior to the 1967 expansion, why not use six? Enjoy the rankings below and check back next week to see if your team cracked the Top Six or jumped out of the Bottom Six.
Rank | Team | Last Week | Team Notes |
1 | WAS | 1 | Backup goalie Neuvirth is worth his weight in gold. |
2 | TOR | 23 | Leaf’s fans have been waiting for a contender for years. Is this their year? |
3 | DAL | 25 | Kari Lehtonen is 4-0 and they spanked Detroit 4-1 in home opener. Tonight’s game @TB should be exciting. |
4 | NSH | 21 | Posted impressive victory @CHI and managed to earn a point against WAS. Tied for Central lead. |
5 | MTL | 11 | Played five games in 10 days. Any team would take a 3-1-1 record in that short period of time. |
6 | DET | 4 | What will worry Wings fans more: Osgood’s performance @DAL or an injured Brian Rafalski? |
25 | MIN | 24 | They stayed fairly similar to preseason ranking. They are what they are, but havetime to improve. |
26 | NJ | 8 | Salary cap did Devils in when they dressed 15 skaters against PITT last week. Only win was in shootout against BUF. |
27 | VAN | 2 | Goal Roberto Luongo allowed to Justin Williams was one of softest I have ever seen. He must play better. |
28 | NYR | 26 | With Marian Gaborik and Chris Drury injured for several weeks, the Rangers and the Bottom Six will be good friends. |
29 | ANA | 20 | Started 0-3, but avoided last due to two wins and OTL in last three games. |
30 | BUF | 10 | Are ranked this low because of losses to two Bottom Six teams and earning 1 point in last five games. |
toronto is not the #2 team in the nhl. please redo this power ranking. it is fraud.
KMZ, what would rank Toronto at?
They are playing pretty good right now. Fun team to watch. Time will tell if they can hold it together or not.
okay Mr. KMZ, find me a team not in the Top Six that has gotten off to a better start than Toronto? Just like EB said, After the first week/10 days of the season they have been playing the second-best hockey in my opinion. The Leafs and the Preds are the only teams without a regulation loss, and the Leafs suffered their first OTL last night against the Islanders.