Ontario teams bookend this week's NHL Power Ranking

By Sportlogiq Staff (@Sportlogiq)

The Maple Leafs have been on an absolute tear in November. They’re the only team to reach double digit wins this month, winning 12 of their 14 games. A 3-0-0 week to end its November schedule pushes Toronto all the way up to the top spot in the NHL in these Power Rankings. The Leafs’ Big 4 is in full form, with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander all scoring at over a point per game pace since November 1st.

It’s been a quiet week for the Flames, who split their two games of the week. With Florida and Carolina dropping, that’s enough for them to claim second place in these Power Rankings. Calgary owns the best goal differential in the NHL at +1.33, helped by a red-hot start from Jakob Markstrom. Markstrom has a .937 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.81. That $6 million cap hit is looking like a bargain for Calgary right now.

The Oilers had a solid week, going 2-1-0, but close wins against the Coyotes and Golden Knights coupled with a 4-1 loss to the Stars keeps them from shooting up too much in these Rankings. The Oilers have a perfect opportunity to continue padding their record with 7 of their next 8 games played on home ice. Leon Draisaitl is the first player in the NHL to reach 20 goals and 40 points this season, while Connor McDavid’s 22 assists lead the NHL. In other words, just another week at the office for Edmonton and their two megastars.

The Jets are the biggest fallers of the week after going 1-3-0, which drops them 11 spots and way out of the top ten. Their three losses came by a combined score of 13-2. This drops their goal differential to right about average at +0.05. Defense continues to be an issue for the Jets, as it has been for years. Winnipeg allows 25.0 scoring chances per games this season, ranking them 29th in the NHL. As long as their defense doesn’t tighten up, they will be over-reliant on Connor Hellebuyck, who’s been the biggest workhorse in the NHL since 2017-18, with 14,475 minutes played. Andrei Vasilevskiy is the only other netminder to even be within a thousand minutes of him over that span.

The downward spiral continues in Vancouver as they dropped all three of their matchups this week. The Canucks have now lost 10 of their 13 November games, taking only seven points in the process. Only Ottawa (3 points) and Buffalo (4) have been worse since the start of the month. Their penalty kill hurt them in November, with an embarrassing 56.8 per cent efficiency. To make matters worse, no other team has been under even the 70 per cent mark in that span. Combine that with 44 powerplay opportunities allowed to opponents, most in the NHL, and it makes it tough to play winning hockey.

And another disappointing week on the ice for the Habs was overshadowed by owner Geoff Molson clearing house, firing GM Marc Bergevin, as well as Trevor Timmins and Paul Wilson. Former Rangers GM Jeff Gorton has been named VP of Hockey Operations and will oversee the team for the foreseeable future. Montreal is still looking for its first back to back wins of the season and hope to carry the momentum of an eventful 6-3 win over the Penguins on Saturday into their Monday night game in Vancouver.

The only team who has yet to win more than one game in November, Ottawa is the first team to take last place from the Coyotes in the Power Rankings since the start of the season. Looking on the brighter side, Drake Batherson is continuing his strong year in the nation's capital. The 23-year-old has 16 points in 14 games, a mark that leads the team despite Batherson missing five games this year.