NHL Power Rankings: Trades & America

2-17-12

Power Rankings

Herm’s back and here are your top 10 EXPERT NHL power rankings. That’s right, expert. We’ll also talk trades and Hockey Day in America!

#1- New York Rangers: Despite a 4-2 home loss to the Blackhawks (having lost 9 in a row they were due), the Rangers continue to be the best team in the NHL. As of today they trail DET by only 1 point for tops in the NHL and they have played two less games. Trade rumors of Rick Nash coming to the big apple may be a bit premature but it would be a great acquisition. There’s no need for a contract negotiation as Nash is signed long term, but he does come with a $7.8 million cap hit. It would be a help to the Rangers awful power play but GM Glen Sather must find a way to execute the deal without disturbing the chemistry of the team. They’ll see Nash and the Bluejackets this coming Sunday during Hockey Day in America . King Henrik (not in net for the loss to the Hawks) is on his way to a Vezina season, and perhaps even a Hart trophy for league MVP. LINsanity is not the only exciting thing happening at the Garden.

#2- Detroit Red Wings: 21 Straight home wins (NHL record) and most points in the league. What’s keeping them behind the Rangers? They’ve played two more games and are only 15-15-1 on the road. Except for Lidstrom, Zetterberg, and Datsyuk; there are no other players on the team that carry a cap hit of over $4 million. This leaves the Wings with lots of cap space heading into the deadline. They’d love Rick Nash and I’m sure he wouldn’t complain about heading to “Hockeytown” but it’s ahrd to see Columbus trading him to the Wings. Jimmy howard’s injury might have been a big problem for Detroit, but Joey Macdonald has won 4 consecutive starts for the Wings. With the high level of Macdonald’s play this team has kept rolling and if they can get their act together on the road they could be unbeatable. Along with the Rangers, I view them as a top Stanley Cup Final contender.

#3- Vancouver Canucks: Not a lot of media attention, at least here out east, but the Canucks are only 2 points behind Detroit and 1 behind the Rangers. They have a home game against the Maple Leafs before heading out for a 6 game road trip with stops in Edmonton, Nashville, Detroit, and New Jersey to name a few. We’ll get an up close look at them against the Devils on the 24th. The Stanley Cup runner-ups seem to be intent on becoming champions this year. They have scored points in their last 10 games (8-0-2). One big question for them is if they will move one of their goalies before the deadline. It doesn’t seem likely, as good as Luongo and Schneider are, you want to have good depth at goalie heading into the playoffs. Schneider is a free agent next year, but he’s restricted so they have right of first refusal. The only problem is they have the highest cap total in the league, with little big money coming off the books for next season.

#4- St. Louis Blues: Like the little engine that could, the Blues keep fighting to stay in the central race with Detroit. Currently they are only 3 poitns behind the Red Wings with a game in hand. Their big names ( Jamie Langenbrunner and Jason Arnott) are both in the latter stages of their career and not producing like they once did. However, the rest of this young team is picking up the slack for them and they also have 2 goalies with sub .500 GAA’s ( Elliot at 19-5-2 1.61 GAA, nhl’s best GAA; and Halak 16-10-5 1.97 GAA, 4th best) . The blues are a real feel good story since Hitchkock was named head coach and they look to surprise some people with a deep playoff run

#5- Boston Bruins-The Champs lost to the Rangers, again, and are only 5-5 in their last 10. They are still in the top 5 because of their pedigree. Timmy Thomas has been getting more attention for his off-ice comments rather than get attention for his on-ice play and that’s always a problem. They escaped against Montreal this week with a shootout win after a bad giveaway by Chara to let the game get tied up. I’d expect this to just be a bump in the road and the B’s to be alright come playoff time, but a trade may be a good way to re-energize the group; but only if the deal is right.

#6- Nashville Predators- Great defense (Suter, Webber) and great goaltending (Renne, 2nd on wins list to Jimmy Howard) are a huge part of this team’s success this year; coach Barry Trotz also has a little something to do with it as he’s been getting these Preds to play at a higher level than most would expect for a few seasons. Fisher and Hornqvist lead the team with only 17 goals a piece but they have 9 goal scorers with double digit goals so it’s a true team effort. Suter and Webber likely aren’t going anywhere at the deadline; how could you trade them? The team’s playing too well and is likely heading to the playoffs. The Preds aren’t exactly the most popular thing in the Nashville area (Hockey not popular in the south? NO WAY!) and losing one or both of their two star defensemen won’t help matters either.

#7- Philadelphia Flyers: The season likely hasn’t gone exactly as planned by the Flyers, but they’re still a top team in the east and they’ve played very well on the road. If they slip in the standings behind Pitt and/or the Devils they’ll need to rely on that road warrior experience to win in the playoffs. What the Flyers have going for them is that they can score, and they can score a lot. They lead the leagues in goals per game averaging just over 3 and they have the 5th best powerplay. The PP is very important come playoff time and this team is one of the best. They are a scary first round opponent for anyone and a scary opponent for any of the top 3 to consider facing deep into the playoffs. With Jagr, Giroux, Hartnell, and Simmonds playing well the fans in Philly may have some hope for a return to the Finals. I’m sure they expected more out of Bryzgalov but the universe man has plenty of time (the rest of this season, the playoffs, plus the 7 or 8 years left on his deal) to prove his contract is justified.

#8- New Jersey Devils: The Devils are just about back to being “ the Devils” except they have a new offensive life we haven’t seen from this organization in quite some time (if at all). Gone are the days of Stevens, Daneyko, and Neiedermayer; now it’s Kovalchuck, Parise, Elias, and Clarskon leading the way. There’s also this guy who seemed to have remembered how to play goaltender in an awesome fashion, Marty something I think is his name. Since his long term injury in 08-09 Marty hasn’t really been the same. He’s been hurt and not on top of his game since that point but he has seemed to hit his stride again this season. He only has one shutout, a save percentage just over .900 and he’s splitting more time with his backup than usual, but that’s what happens when you are pushing 40. However, he’s 4-1 with a 1.61 GAA and a .942 save percentage so far this month. Lou usually does a good job adding players at or close to the deadline when needed (Kovalchuck in 2010, Mogilny in 2000, Arnott in 98) so we’ll see if he has any moves up his sleeve this season. Call me a homer all you want but this team has earned the right to be in the top 10. One favorite moment from this season I have is right here:

https://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/109494

KovalPUNCH!

#9- Pittsburgh Penguins: They are behind the Devs because of their extra game played (an OT loss giving them a 1 point edge in the standings) but the Pens have done a great job soldiering through many injuries this season. No sign of Sid the Kid in the naar future means Evegeni Malkin needs to keep up his MVP play. This man will stop Henrik Lundqvist from getting the Hart trophy in my opinion. He leads the league in points (69), is 2nd in goals (32), and he’s 9th in assists (37). He’s also the main reasons the Pens have stayed in the top 8 and he’s proving to be a great leader for this team in the absence of Crosby. Pens could use some help at the deadline, but with so many teams in the race both above and below them are there really enough sellers to satisfy all the buyers at the deadline, especially the Pens and other mid pack teams?

#10- San Jose Sharks- The Sharks round out the top 10. They in 3rd out West, but hold only a 4 point lead over Phoenix and LA. There are too many solid players and veterans on this team for them to miss the playoffs but if they fall out of the division lead they would be closer to the 9th place team than they would like. They played the Canucks tough in the West finals last year and Joe Thornton wants a cup bad; it’s time to see if he can lead them to that goal. To me the Sharks are kind of like Peyton Manning and the Colts. Great regular season success; but nothing of substance in the playoffs (with the exception of that one year for Indy back in ’06) The Sharks playoff mishaps mirror that of the NJ Devils teams’ inbetween their three cup runs. The NHL playoffs are harsd, but I figured they’d grab one championship by now. Their window is closing though.

Trades

The deadline is approaching rather quickly as teams can no longer trade after Feb 27th. It seems every team is looking for a puck moving defenseman, power play help, and a scorer. One player could cover two or three of those attributes but as I mentioned earlier while talking about Pittsburgh, there are a lot of buyers and a lot of teams outside the playoffs that are close. There aren’t enough sellers or players to go around. Rick Nash to NY or LA seems to be something that will happen, but Columbus needs to get the best value they can for him. If they can’t I’d hold onto him and try again next year. It’s not like they don’t have him signed long term so if they are looking to rebuild this current rebuilding effort (sounds like the NY Mets a little bit), they can wait a little while. It’s not like anything good is happening this season for them. They looked like they got the short end of the stick in the trade for Carter form the Flyers this past offseason so I think they’ll be weary to move him unless LA, NY, or some other team can wow them on an offer. Another interesting player of interest is defenseman Jack Johnson for LA; could he be a centerpiece in a trade for Nash?

Hockey Day in America! (Take that Canada)

Sunday Feb 19th is Hockey Day in America. NBC and the NBC Sports Network will have day long coverage of some great games. They’re also running a pick the mvp contest; all details and game matchups can be found here:

https://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/16/play-nbc-sports-hockey-day-in-america-mvp-challenge/

All right puck heads, tune in next time, and be sure to catch the KIRS radio show on Sundays; I may even call in once in a while.

-Herm