Teams are nearing the end of the first quarter of the season. While you can’t win your division, make the playoffs, or win the Stanley Cup at this point of the season, you sure can lose it. And lose it quickly. The Islanders stood at 4-1-2 after beating Tampa October 21, and they have not won a game since. The Red Wings are like a diesel engine, give it time to warm up, and they will fire on all cylinders. Their only loss was at Vancouver, a team that has a 6-1-1 record at home this season. The musical chairs of holding the top spot in the rankings this week, let’s see if the Flyers can become the first team to return to the top spot of the rankings next week.
Editor’s Note: Next week will feature the monthly 30-team rankings.
| Rank | Team | Last Week | Team Notes |
| 1 | PHI | 3 | The Flyers and Lightning got a little head start on the All-Star game as they combined for 15 goals Thursday night- 14 of them in the first 40 minutes. Despite the loss, they bounced back and beat Washington in shootout two nights later. |
| 2 | DET | 4 | Finished two-week, six game home-stand with 5-0-1 record. That’s what separates the good teams from bad: protecting home ice. Road games at Atlanta and Columbus on tap this week before hosting Blue Jackets Sunday afternoon. |
| 3 | WAS | 2 | Despite not having a win since Wednesday, Capitals still have most points in NHL. Saturday’s shootout loss against Flyers was second time they failed to win at home this season. |
| 4 | LA | 1 | Los Angeles had a rough week. Started in San Jose, then back home, then fly to the east coast to play two days later. Expect them to bounce back this week against Ottawa and Montreal. After Wednesday, they don’t leave California until Dec. 13. |
| 5 | MTL | 5 | Continuing what I said last week, Carey Price has done nothing but surprise. He’s tied for the league lead in wins and shutouts. He also has not allowed four or more goals in regulation this season. |
| 6 | COL | NR | The Avalanche won all four games played this week. Wednesday they travel to Vancouver in a matchup that will either extend Colorado’s division lead or tie it. |
| 25 | OTT | NR | Ottawa hasn’t won a game when allowing three or more goals since Oct. 28. The offense didn’t do much last week either as they were out scored 17-4 in three losses. They host top goalie Jonathan Quick and Los Angeles tonight. |
| 26 | CAL | 26 | Tough collapse for the Flames Sunday afternoon at Detroit. They led 4-2 midway through the third period before allowing two goals to tie the game and another in overtime. It’s games like this that can either make the climb harder or get the team on a roll. They should get at least six points on remainder of east coast trip this week. |
| 27 | TOR | 28 | All season long it’s been goalie-by-committee. Now that J-S Giguere is out for a week or so, Jonas Gustavsson can play his way into a full-time starting role if he can steal games this week. |
| 28 | NJ | 27 | One coach in the division already got ax’ed this season. Could John MacLean be next? This week could figure that answer out as they have two top bottom-feeders (Calgary and NY Islanders) sandwiched between two top teams (Washington and Philadelphia) |
| 29 | EDM | 29 | Nikolai Khabiulin went on IR due to a groin injury. Opponents are looking forward to lighting the lamp several times against Martin Gerber and Devan Dubnyk as Chicago and Phoenix did. Interesting stat: they have more wins (3) on Sunday than the other six days combined (2). |
| 30 | NYI | 30 | They can make some kind of unwanted history this week. Should they fail to defeat Columbus and New Jersey in final two games of the month this week, they Islanders will have failed to record a win for the entire month. After yesterday’s overtime loss at Atlanta, they are 0-7-2 in November. |
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