It’s back to the well once again with another edition of the NHL Power Rankings. For the third straight week, a different team sits atop the rankings. While that’s starting to change on a regular basis once again, the bottom of the Power Rankings remains the same.

#1 Washington Capitals (Last Week #3)
The hottest team in the NHL right now by far is the Washington Capitals. Since the trade deadline, this team has come together. They’ve solidified defensively in front of a quality trio of goaltenders. A renewed emphasis on shoring up the team’s defense is what media are crediting. And stats seem to back that claim up fairly well. The Caps are tied for 5th in the league in goals against. They say that defense wins championships so this might be the best shot that Washington has.

#2 Vancouver Canucks (LW #5)
The official NHL.com standings have a new statistical category that has been added for the stretch run. They now feature ROW which is Regulation and Overtime Wins. I mention that here because Vancouver leads the league in ROW with 42. They have a total 46 wins and four in the shootout. If you subtract shootout wins from total wins, you get ROW. This is the new stat that replaces wins as the first tiebreaker in the standings. With that out of the way, let’s get back to the playoffs.

#3 San Jose Sharks (LW #2)
Now that the Sharks are pretty close to their usual regular season form, can we assume that they will play at their post-season finest come April? And by post-season finest, I mean a second round exit instead of the usual first round bounce. Granted, they were lucky to avoid that last year after topping the Western Conference last season. They seem to just play to the other team’s level come the post season. If ownership paid epic bonuses for playoff success, they might get somewhere.

#4 Los Angeles Kings (LW #14)
The battle for the Pacific Division is back to heating up. San Jose has a three-point lead atop the division but Los Angeles and Phoenix are only three points left. The Kings a have one game in hand over the Sharks and are the hotter team right now. Wouldn’t it be something if Los Angeles went from on top of the league to out of the playoffs to back to winning a division in the same season?

#5 Montreal Canadiens (LW #9)
Some fans decided to protest the NHL’s lack of punishment of the Max Pacioretty hit before Tuesday night’s Habs game at the Bell Centre. By all accounts, the protest was a complete dud. One twitter report (which may have been a joke) said that there were only about 20 people protesting. Other reports had the number in the hundreds but admitted that most folks looked like they were milling about before a game like any other game. I’d say Gary got the message.

#6 Chicago Blackhawks (LW #1)
What I really wanted to use the above spot for was to mention that the NHL’s owners extended Gary Bettman’s contract for five seasons. I can’t recall the exact amount off the top of my head but I believe Gary is getting $7 or $8 million a year as the commish. My question is how does a guy who saw the league through two lockouts and a monumental popularity collapse get this extension? It defies all logic… Then again, this is the NHL. Everything here defies logic.

#7 Boston Bruins (LW #4)
Normally I like Don Cherry’s safety initiatives but his latest idea for preventing the impact of the Paccioretty hit is bordering on the utter ridiculous. He wants the stanchions to stand at 45 degrees from the ice rather than perpendicular like they are now. In other words, it’s _/_ instead of _|_ if you’re looking at the boards head-on. That’ll lessen the impact but it might send players into the air and who knows what happens then. Just get rid of the stanchions altogether.

#8 Detroit Red Wings (LW #6)
My beloved Wings are plummeting down the Power Rankings. It seems that they’re just treading water at 0.500% while everyone else looking at a Cup run is making a push heading into the playoffs. Like I’ve said more than a few times before, this team needs some goaltending. They’re 15th in the league in goals against. This from a team often considered one of the best defensive squads in hockey. That’s not a promising number heading into April.

#9 Philadelphia Flyers (LW #7)
They’re 4th among the Eastern Conference squads in the Power Rankings but #1 in the Eastern Conference points standings. Granted, Washington is hot on their heels but the Flyers have two games in hand. The problem may be that the Flyers are playing 0.500% hockey right now. Like with Detroit, it’s not a slump but it’s definitely not how you want to go into the playoffs.

#10 Tampa Bay Lightning (LW #12)
I really hate the Bolts. I love the players and, of course, GM Steve Yzerman but I really hate the Lightning. They’re continuously throwing off my rule of thumb about team goal differential. How can a team that is solidly in a playoff spot still have a negative goal differential. Sure, early in the season after some blowouts, it’s acceptable. With 70 games played, it should have leveled out. I guess there are three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics.

#11 Pittsburgh Penguins (LW #10)
Good news! Crosby skated again this week. While Gary’s Golden Boy isn’t close to being ready to play again, it’s a comforting sign for the league that it’s most boring yet most recognizable player isn’t dead. We haven’t seen him for two months now and I figured that he wasn’t coming out of his room until somebody got suspended for hurting him. Crosby does seem like the type to sulk, doesn’t he? Anyway, symptoms or no symptoms, he’s going to be back for the playoffs. I’ll guarantee it.

#12 Dallas Stars (LW #11)

#13 Calgary Flames (LW #8)

#14 Buffalo Sabres (LW #15)
Have you heard that song Friday by Rebecca Black? If you haven’t, suffice to say that you’ll never talk to me again if I suggest you do. It really is that bad. Anyway, the Sabres decided to violate the Geneva Convention at a recent game by playing Friday during a break in play. Apparently, they have a Twitter poll to determine what songs will be played during stoppages and the ballot box was stuffed with Friday. That’s just evil. Even Nickelback would be better. That’s saying something.

#15 Phoenix Coyotes (LW #13)
BIZ! Paul Bissonnette is making waves for his tweeting again. This time, he’s getting noticed for declaring his love for one of the Calgary Flames ice girls on the social media website. His tweeps helped him track down an ice girls team picture from which Biz identified her but couldn’t come up with a name. It’s the new classic love story. Boy sees girl. Boy tweets about girl. Girl doesn’t have Twitter so his crush is unrequited. Slightly more poetic than anything I’d expect to be associated with Biz.

#16 Anaheim Ducks (LW #19)
The Ducks may be outside the top eight of the Western Conference right now but they’re in very good shape. They have a game in hand over the rest of the contenders and have three in hand over 8th place Calgary who are only two points ahead. If Dan Ellis can get over his much mocked money problems and Jonas Hiller gets over his vertigo, this team is definitely playoff bound.

#17 New Jersey Devils (LW #17)
Same old Devils analysis. When I think they have a shot at the playoffs, I’ll move them inside the top 16. Granted, I have them ranked higher than the likely playoff bound Rangers which means I should just move them up to the top 10. For now, the Devils and coach of the year contender Jacques Lemaire will sit on the outside looking in here as they are in the Eastern Conference standings.

#18 New York Rangers (LW #20)
Speaking of famous Jacques, I have a bone to pick with Danica Patrick. What does one have to do with the other, you ask? On Speed Center last weekend, they filled time by interviewing drivers about their heroes. Danica’s hero was Canada’s own Jacques Villeneuve. Any Canadian can easily pronounce his name. Danica… Not so much. She repeatedly referred to him as (and pardon the bad spelling for pronunciation purposes) Jocks Villan-uve. Must be some hero if you can’t say his damn name.

#19 Nashville Predators (LW #22)
Can I get back to vertigo for a second? How the hell does someone diagnose vertigo? I mean, I occasionally feel like my car is rolling backwards when I’m stopped at a traffic light. Every now and then, I feel like I’m spinning very slightly and very slowly while sitting in my chair at my 9-to-5. So does that mean I have vertigo or just some very inner-ear problem not worth looking at? That’s the problem with internet diagnoses. You’re either fine or you’re dying.

#20 Minnesota Wild (LW #18)
Now that Charlie Sheen’s madness seems to have calmed just a bit, I don’t think we’ll be getting nearly as many “duck fly together” jokes about his famous brother Gordon Bombay… I mean Emilio Estevez. And that’s a shame because that’s one of the all-time great movie speeches. And even worse is that fact that the whole speech isn’t transcribed on the internet. I googled it. You can’t find more than a couple of lines of that speech anywhere. Looks like I’m going to have to fix it myself.

#21 Toronto Maple Leafs (LW #24)
The bandwagon seems to have emptied again. It’s too hard to keep track of the Leafs bandwagon now. It’s full after every win and empty after every loss. Actually, that’s status quo in the centre of the universe, isn’t it? At six points out of the playoffs, I don’t think there’ll be many more believers hopping on the bandwagon with each win. Six points in hand and level with Buffalo for games remaining. It’s not looking good, yet again, for the Make Believes.

#22 Carolina Hurricanes (LW #16)
We had a big milestone on my other interweb project yesterday. Over on KMeNow, we had our 15th published story on the site. Considering that the site has been up for a month this week, it’s not saying much but we’re publishing and growing page views at a faster clip than we did when The Lowdown Blog launched. I know this is a tine bit of auto-fellatio but I’m really excited about this so that’s why I stole the Hurricanes’s paragraph. It’s not like they’re going to make the playoffs.

#23 St. Louis Blues (LW #25)

#24 Columbus Blue Jackets (LW #21)

#25 Ottawa Panthers (LW #27)

#26 Atlanta Thrashers (LW #28)

#27 New York Islanders (LW #26)

#28 Florida Panthers (LW #29)

#29 Edmonton Oilers (LW #23)
The ISS (International Scouting Service, if memory serves) has named Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as their #1 prospect in their latest edition of skater rankings. I think that’s got to be the third different top prospect for the upcoming draft this season. I can’t remember the last time we had such an open field for the #1 as we have this year. Pierre McGuire must be nursing a semi over all this young talent.

#30 Colorado Avalanche (LW #30)
The gap is down to five. The Avs are only five points up on the Oilers for dead last in the league. With only one win in their last 20 or so games, you’d have to think Colorado is gunning for that #1 pick. It takes great dedication to the cause to suck that badly over the stretch run of a season. The slight irony of this is that the #1 pick isn’t guaranteed thanks to the draft lottery. You’d have to think that the NHL will rig it so Colorado rather than Edmonton would get the #1 but you can never be sure in Gary’s NHL.

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