1) Anaheim Ducks
Riding the boost of Kyle Palmieri's OT winner over the Devils and Ryan Getzlaf's hat trick towards the end of this week, the Anaheim Ducks have won 8 straight games and vaulting themselves to the top spot in the league. During this 8 game stretch, the Ducks have scored 31 times with three single games in which they have let the lamp 5 times. Their goaltender has not been stellar but that is not important as even while allowing on average 2.11 goals per game this month they have a December goals differential of +12.
2) Chicago Blackhawks
With the NHL's Stadium Series looming, the Chicago Blackhawks have stood tall this week going 2-0-1 with 8 goals scored against 3 different teams all known for their defense. The Blackhawks lead the NHL in goal scoreing this season and yet it seems that the only reason they are loosing games is because of a nagging lower body injury that is keeping their uncontested starting goaltender Corey Crawford out of the lineup. But even that is rendered mute by the near comparable work of Antii Ranta who has started 6 consecutive games for Chicago and has since posted a 2.26 GAA. Good teams find ways to win no matter the circumstances and like many teams this time of year they are sure being tested by injuries up and down their lineup.
3) Pittsburgh Penguins
While the Ducks lead the league with the longest active win streak in the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins are right behind them having won 7 straight games. Evgeni Malkin has returned to his dominant scoreing self while Sidney Crosby has made it past the quarter pole of the season completely uninjured. He scored his 20th goal of the season this week to compliment a performance of scoreing 7 points in the 4 games the Penguins played this week. Furthermore, this recent string of dominance has vaulted the Penguins to 1st in the Eastern Conference.
4) LA Kings
The Kings have fallen back to earth following a string of 6 straight wins that was snapped during the week. However they have bounced back with 3 straight wins against the Oilers, Sharks and Avalanche respectively outscoring their last 3 opponents 10-3.
5) Boston Bruins
Frankly, it is amazing how the Bruins have coped with the loss of stars like Chris Kelly and Shawn Thornton as well as a good portion of their defensive core. They have asked a whole host of players to step up and they have done just that keeping the Bruins in first place in the Atlantic Division as they roll through a stretch of relatively weak opponents
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