November 27, 2014
by Dakota Antelman
For NHL teams, Thanksgiving is a major telling point in their season.
Usually occurring just past the quarter pole of the season, teams have played enough games to get a sense of who their scorers and surprise rookie sensations are and who their fourth line grinders are. Teams have usually had to deal with injuries showing their ability to compensate and exercise depth just as goaltenders have usually logged enough starts to get a sense of their own abilities and how their defenders play the game of hockey.
All and all, it is around this time of year that we begin to see which NHL teams are destined for postseason contention and which ones will be going back to the drawing board come summer.
For the occasion, Go Titletown has compiled a brief ranking of the top five NHL teams to this point in the season...
1) New York Islanders (16-6-0)
There's been nothing flashy about the Islanders to this point in the season aside from the fact that they are simply and reliably winning hockey games.
Johnny Boycuck has fit in well since being traded away from Boston. He is averaging over 22 minutes of ice time per game and has started every Islanders contest this season.
Behind him, Jaraslov Halak is playing lights out hockey. His three shutouts this season are second best in the league while his GAA of 2.21 has the Islanders often outscoring opponents by two or even three goals.
The men scoring those goals are of a diverse list. 18 Islanders have scored this season with names like John Tavares and Brock Nelson leading the charge.
The Islanders are looking good at the Thanksgiving checkpoint. Thus they are granted the first spot in our power rankings.
2) Anaheim Ducks (14-4-5)
Behold the Anaheim Ducks! The long term leaders of the Pacific Division have ridden the return of Cory Perry's excellence to a dominant 14-4-5 record.
Perry has scored 12 times this season while young net minder Fredrik Andersen has dominated with a GAA of 2.10.
The Ducks have suffered some rough times though, losing three straight games to LA, Florida and Calgary last week.
Needless to say though, the Ducks are rolling through Thanksgiving with straight A's
3) Pittsburgh Penguins (15-4-2)
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are doing what they do best this season; scoring goals.
The Penguins lead the NHL in goals scored and have knocked off the Bruins, Canadians and Maple Leafs all in the past week. Their defense is standing tall and their goal-tending has for once managed to not lose games for them.
The one negative this season were stunning losses in back to back games vs the Islanders last week. They were outscored 9-5 in those games and saw their place in the standing drop ever so slightly.
Still though, the Penguins remain one of the NHL's best teams this season.
4) Montreal Canadians (16-6-1)
The Canadians, who currently hold the best record in hockey, would be higher in this week's power rankings if it were not for their recent utter collapses against the Penguins and Rangers respectively.
In all truth, those two shutout losses revealed a lot about this team. Despite their 16 wins the Canadians are a lowly 20th in the NHL in goal scoring. Despite their dominance of lowly teams, the Canadians have been unable to handle some of the better teams the NHL schedule has thrown at them. And despite the omnipresence of Cary Price between the pipes, the Canadians are middle of the pack in goals against.
The Canadians are a good team. But if the Bruins, Redwings or frankly anyone in the Atlantic Division so much as has a good week than the Canadians' place atop the standings could be in jeopardy.
5) St Louis Blues (14-6-2)
Despite a lingering injury to their goalie, Brian Elliot, the Blues are tied for the best record in the central division. They have the best goals against average in the NHL (2.0) and have been on some of the most dominant runs of any team this season.
However, a rough start to the season has the, behind in the league standings and slightly statistically inferior to some of the higher ranked teams.
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