Another week, another round of the Power Rankings as we head into the 7th week of the 2010-11 NHL season. I figured that I would have given up by now but people are actually reading this. Actually, if you Google NHL power rankings, we’re the 1st site to come up… Well, at least when I checked on Monday monring before anyone else came out with theirs for the week. It’s a stretch to say that we can be mentioned in the same breath as TSN, CBC, ESPN, Sportsnet and Yahoo but if we’re occasionally number one in Google’s NHL Power Rankings Power Rankings, I’ll take it. Mind you, on Tuesday we were on the second page so I can’t really gloat. Anyhow, we have a familiar face at the top of this week’s rankings.

#1 Washington Capitals (LW #6)
The NHL announced last week that the new All-Star Game format will essentially be a televised game of pond hockey on an indoor rink. Now who do you think will be the captains of the two teams? I’m guessing that the two teams will be headed by Colton Orr and Derek Boogaard. No, it’ll be Crosby and Malkin. Sure, Eric Staal has a chance as the home town guy since the game is in Carolina but let’s face it, Gary’s boy will definitely get one C and Ovi is likely to get the other. How much would it suck to be the last pick in this game? A multi-millionare but last pick in a pickup game.

#2 Los Angeles Kings (LW #2)
Guess who’s still unbeaten at home? (Well, after Tuesday’s games because I’m not staying up into the early hours of EST to update the damn rankings.) The Kings are 8-0-0 at the Staples Center which makes them far better for the home fans than the Clippers. That’s even better than the Lakers so far but we all know that the Lakers are a championship calibre team. With a record like this, maybe the Kings can move up the local sports radar to where they were in the Gretzky days. But at the very least, they’ll be more popular than the Clips, even if Bill Simmons has season tickets.

#3 Detroit Red Wings (LW #5) The Wings climb back up the Power Rankings this week on the power of their superstar defenceman. Nick Lidstrom entered Wednesday’s action tied for the team lead in points. He has 17 along with Henrik Zetterberg. On most teams, I’d call this offensive deficiency but the Wings get a pass on this because they’re my team. Well, that and when you have the first player since Mario Lemieux that is good enough to warrant having his Hall of Fame waiting period waived, any news like this involving him is good news.

#4 Philadelphia Flyers (LW #3)
This one will probably piss off the folks on Broad Street. The Flyers are undefeated in regulation over their last 10 games. So how can I rank them below Detroit and Los Angeles? Well, it’s most likely because of Bob. Well, not just Sergei Bobrovski but the whole fact that the Flyers can’t seem to find goaltending to save their life. It should be understandable why I’m not sold on them yet. That and Philly is too wrapped up in the Eagles to really care about the Flyers right now.

#5 St. Louis Blues (LW #1)
Since I put them at the top of the last Power Rankings, les Bleus (which is French for “the Blues”) are 0-3-0 excluding last night’s game. Over that stretch, they gave up 14 goals which dropped them from fewest goals against in the league to 8th behind such stellar teams as Columbus, Minnesota and Florida. They are still on the plus side of goal differential but only by one. That’s still better than the next team on this list. The difference is that the Blues are a one-man team. Even if Ty Conklin is lights out in his rare appearance, the team lives and dies by Jaro Halak.

#6 Anaheim Ducks (LW #11)
The Ducks are on the comeback trail. Considering that Randy Carlisle was within days of aparently getting turfed, you have to wonder who decided that it was time to step up. It’s clearly not the goaltending or defence because the team’s GAA is 3.00. However, the forwards are picking up the slack with three players at the point-per-game mark. Corey Perry (who I said was a better player than Mats Sundin some four years ago and stick by that) and Ryan Getzlaf were expected to rack up the points. Teemu Selanne is the third guy and he was considering retirement this off-season, there’s something special at the pond this season.

#7 Vancouver Canucks (LW #4)
Usually when I write the Power Rankings, I start at the top of the table and bounce around but from about 20-25, I run out of things to say. This week, the Canuckleheads are the last team I wrote about. It’s probably hypocritical of me to complain about some teams being a one-man show and then complain that the Canucks are a two-man show. The difference is that neither of those men are a goaltender. When Cory Schneider is out-playing Roberto Luongo, you might be in trouble. The good news is that people are willing to trade for Schneider and maybe they can get some scoring in return.

#8 Montreal Canadiens (LW #7)
Carey Price is finally playing like someone that deserves to be the starting goalie of the Montreal Canadiens. Over the last little bit, he’d been the hottest goalie in the NHL and has quietly become the highest point scoring goalie in Hockeybuzz’s fantasy pools. The question now is how the Habs will do without their superstar defenceman again. Andrei Markov missed the first month of the season with the ACL tear that knocked him out of last year’s playoffs. Montreal wouldn’t release many details on this injury but we do know it was the knee for the fourth time in three years. Clearly, near $6 million doesn’t buy what it used to.

#9 New York Rangers (LW #20)
Is it possible to talk about the Rangers this week without mentioning the Avery cheapshot on Smid? Some folks are calling it a sucker punch but I think that’s a bit of a misnomer. I think a sucker punch is more of a blindside punch that the guy never saw coming. Smid saw Avery coming but Avery jumped him so Smid couldn’t defend himself adequately so he could get the advantage in a fight. That being said, I’m with Wade Belak on this one. I wouldn’t piss on Sean Avery if he was on fire. I doubt you’d find any disagreement among the members of the NHLPA.

#10 Phoenix Coyotes (LW #24)
Some properly sad news at this point. KFC in Canada has killed the Double Down. I kept meaning to go to a KFC to grab one of those things but sadly, it’s gone the way of the McRib sandwich. No explanation was given when KFC issued a press release saying the Double Down was no more in Canada. Shockingly, the heart attack in a paper wrapper was the “most successful menu item” in KFC’s Canadian history. Of course, that’s understandable. Universal health care in Canada. What do Canucks have to fear from the Double Down when they don’t have to fight the insurance companies to get their hospital stay covered.

#11 Boston Bruins (LW #8)
So we’ve found out all about the non-suspension of Matt Cooke after the Marc Savard hit that’s kept him out so far this season. Colin Campbell thinks that Savard is a little fake artist. Well isn’t this a good bit of fun. I mean, we all knew that Campbell never had a scientific method for handing out suspensions. It was all about player reputation, injuries suffered and a bit of fan reaction. Chris Simon got the rest of the season for high-sticking Hollweg while concussed because of his reputation when it should have been $55 and time served. Hopefully we get somebody competant running the league’s disciplanary system now. You know, Gary, I’m willing to move to New York to take over.

#12 Pittsburgh Penguins (LW #15)
The NHL has wisened up about their all-star voting this year. As opposed to prior years where all you had to do was write what was in one of those impossible “captcha” images, this year’s balloting require you to register with NHL.com. I was actually surprised that I didn’t have an account with the site yet. I was slightly more disappointed that I my usual “MurDog” username wasn’t available either. I think Colin Campbell will approve of the one I settled on. I’m now LittleFakeArtist. Take that Colin.

#13 San Jose Sharks (LW #19)
Slowly but surely the Sharks of now are becoming the Sharks of the recent past. By which I mean they’re slowly regaining their usual regular season form. They’ve cracked the top ten in the league standings which isn’t half bad for a team that had such a slow start. I’m really grasping at nice things to say about this lot. I never watch them because they’re on the west coast. As long as they beat the Canucks, I’m happy.

#14 Tampa Bay Lightning (LW #9)
Damnit, Stamkos! Pick up the pace! After tearing away from the field at the start of the season, Stevie Stamkos has been caught in the points chase by the usual suspects of Crosby and Ovechkin. No wonder why I’ve been caught in my fantasy pools. Stamkos looks like he’s starting to run out of steam. Sure, my salary cap league is still going strong but you can’t be a franchise player in fantasy without stringing good weeks together. Good money depends on him being able to get me more points in the second half of the month.

#15 Chicago Blackhawks (LW #10)
Chicago is slowly falling down the league standings. Know why? It’s because they’re a 0.500 team that moved up in the standings because they played more games early on than other teams. They had more points but a worse record than the rest of the league’s top dogs while they were up near the top of the standings. That’s probably explained in part by the fact that they’re tied for fifth most goals allowed in the NHL. With most of that depth traded away, they’re struggling on the defensive side of play. Toews can’t do it all.

#16 Columbus Blue Jackets (LW #13)
Do you know who led the league in GAA after this weekend’s games? Wrong. And right. Well, you probably guessed Steve Mason first because I asked the question under Columbus. With six games played, it’s Mathieu Garon at 1.28 ahead of Tim Thomas’ 1.45. He’s been helped considerably by two shutouts in that period of time. I don’t know what it is in Columbus but they have this habit of producing quality goalies. After Leclaire and Mason, it’s Garon’s turn.

#17 Ottawa Senators (LW #16)
I was in a meeting at my day job so I missed the news that Prince William is finally engaged to his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton. They’re supposed to get married at some point next spring or summer (likely at Westminster Abbey) and then move to North Wales while he serves in the RAF. The question then becomes: Is this any bigger a deal than any celebrity marriage? Sure, he’s second in line to head the British Commonwealth but Angelina Jolie’s whims do just as much to sway opinion in the Commonwealth as the Queen’s. But I suppose we can let the Brits have their fun. Besides, debating the use of the monarchy would take much longer than this tiny space here…

#18 Minnesota Wild (LW #12)
Jenn Sterger finally talked to the NFL about the Dongslinger Saga. It’s bad enough for Brett Favre that his (for now) final season in the NFL was a colossal bust but the fact that his reputation is getting dragged through the artificial turf makes it worse… For him, anyway. For the rest of us, this is hilarious fun since he’s screwed with us for long enough. And now there’s talk that Brad Childress might bench the Dongslinger slightly out of spite. Chilly knows he doesn’t have a job in Minnesota next season so why not go out on your own terms.

#19 Nashville Predators (LW #21)
I had to talk Favre above so I’ll talk the monarchy here. My problem with the monarchy isn’t that they exist or what they may represent. It’s that we fork over millions of dollars for a symbolic figurehead. Now, if those millions of dollars came with some free trade agreements or lessened travel restictions with other Commonwealth nations. The closest we are to that is some negotiations over a free trade agreement with the EU. The monarchy is a fine acknowledgement of our heritage but keeping them as a funded head of state with little to no benefits for Canada isn’t good for a young country that’s often thought of as America’s hat.

#20 Colorado Avalanche (LW #14)
Speaking of fantasy hockey disasters, Chris Stewart has become Kristen Stewart in the second month of the season. October was fantastic because he powered me to the top of my fantasy pool. Now, he’s making it closer than I’d like to pick up another month. Winning two months in a season recovers the buy-in fee with a little extra on top for myself. With Lecavalier out for the next six weeks, I need scoring from someone, it’s time for Stewart to step up… Oh, and the Avs could use him too.

#21 Atlanta Thrashers (LW #18)
Speaking of fantasy pools, Dustin Byfuglien is the top points getter in the HockeyBuzz fantasy pool among defencemen. At a little over $3 million in cap hit, he’s affordable without the sort of player juggling that you’d need for a Crosby or Ovechkin at forward or Brian Campbell, Zdeno Chara or Jay Bouwmeester on the blueline. Granted, he seems to bounce between forward and defence which just makes it easier to justify picking him as a defenceman. Maybe the team should just market him laying big hits and fighting guys. Would work better than pushing Todd White as the franchise guy. Yes, I know he’s gone but you get the point.

#22 Buffalo Sabres (LW #29)
Ryan Miller is back. That might be good news for my fantasy hockey team if I can trade for him. Scott proposed me a trade of Miller, Matt Moulson and Joni Pitkanen for Alex Semin, Tomas Kaberle and Dan Ellis. I’d win on the defensemen and goalies but lose badly on the forwards. So we went back and forth on this until Scotty came up with an epic deal. He sends me Ales Hemsky, Shea Weber, Matt Moulson and Ryan Miller for Daniel Sedin, Mark Letestu, Tomas Kaberle and Dan Ellis. It’s absolutely blockbuster. We could work for Brian Burke with those deal making skills.

#23 Carolina Hurricanes (LW #22)
Versus has finally found a replacement for its cancelled show The Daily Line. Aparantly avoiding all talk about the Dongslinger Saga hurts ratings badly when Jenn Sterger works for your fucking show! Anyway, it’s being replaced by NHL Overtime which is a four nights a week hockey recap show. This may shock you but this is better nightly hockey coverage than what’s provided by the big three sports networks. Well, Sportsnet One might run Hockeycentral nightly but who watches One? Hopefully one of the networks pick this up because they’re lacking proper nightly coverage that we can actually get in the States now. How sad is that?

#24 Dallas Stars (LW #17)
Tuesday saw the assignment of the first European referee in an NHL game. Marcus Vinnerborg had been working in the Swedish Elite League full-time with some major international assignments thrown in the mix. This summer, the NHL hired him to work in the AHL while making sporadic appearances in the NHL. On his first penalty call, he showed that between his first game in the big show and his language barrier, he was a deer in the headlights. Calling tripping against Anaheim’s Paul Mara, he said “White player… Minor penalty… Tripping.” Not the usual “#22 Anaheim. Two minutes, tripping” but not bad for a first effort.

#25 Florida Panthers (LW #25)
Fun fact of the day: Don’t throw paper airplanes at your place of employment. For some reason, it comes off as if you’re dicking around as opposed to an engineering study of the quality of paper being used in your work place. After all, not all paper is made equal. Some is thicker and more rigid while other is so thin that you could blow on it and push a hole straight through. Of course, I can’t be faulted for my non-work related activity. The women folk are talking about shopping, how candles burn and tanning without fear of recourse. I should be fine for doing something productive that would have been a contest in the good old days.

#26 Calgary Flames (LW #26)
If I wasn’t asking here, I have you guess the team with the second-worst cap situation heading into next season. Obviously, it’s the Calgary Flames. They have 17 guys under contract for next season and would be $3.5 million under this year’s cap with six players to sign. That’s a lot of guys at league minimum. They’ll be down to 12 forwards, 4 blueliners and one goalie. So if they’re shit this year, how are they going to manage next season without money to spend?

#27 Edmonton Oilers (LW #28)
Edmonton’s top scorer is Ryan Whitney. The defenceman has 14 assists on the season and that’s it. The next guys in line are Jordan Eberle and Ales Hemsky with 4 goals and 7 assists each. How on earth can you compete when you have no scoring and your #1 goaltender has a DUI conviction hanging over his head? It could be worse, they could be the Toronto Maple Leafs and not have their first round draft pick. So that would make it Hall followed by Sean Couturier for the Oil.

#28 New Jersey Devils (LW #30)
The Devils are finally out of the Power Rankings basement. Granted, it has absolutely nothing to do with what the Devils are doing. They’re just treading water barely better than New York and Toronto. Hell, the way Edmonton has been playing, I could move Jersey up one more spot but I have far less faith in a Devils offence with Kovi than an Oilers offence with Ales Hemsky. Really, these guys should call it a year and start looking for some forwards, defencemen and a new starting goalie for next season.

#29 Toronto Maple Leafs (LW #23)
This is a reputation ranking. See, I can fill in for Colin Campbell just nicely. Sure, they’re above Edmonton and Jersey in the points standings but I don’t want to follow those verbatum. And they just came off an eleven game stretch that was identical to the 11 game start of last season when the Leafs went 1-7-3 or something like that. The goaltending is significantly better this year. Anything is better than Vesa Toskala. The problem is the scoring which is about as good at putting pucks in the net at Toskala was at stopping them. Nazem Kadri won’t save this sinking ship.

#30 New York Islanders (LW #27)
The Isles have usurped the Devils’ place at the bottom of the Power Rankings. I’m so disappointed because I tried to keep them up in the top 16 for as long as I could. So what do the powers that be on Long Island do to rectify the situation? (I call them that because I don’t know if Garth or Chuck call the shots.) They fired head coach Scott Gordon. The team has been shit for years thanks in part to incompetance in the front office. Gordon may be the big winner despite being fired. After all, he doesn’t have to work for a backup goalie anymore.