Panthers beat out Hurricanes on the ice and in the Power Rankings

By Sportlogiq Staff (@Sportlogiq)

To be the best, you have to beat the best, and that’s exactly what the Florida Panthers did this week, handing the Hurricanes their first loss of the year and claiming the top spot from them in our Power Rankings. Florida is now the only team without a regulation loss, claiming 21 out of a possible 22 points so far. Things could hardly have gone any better for the Cats.

Edmonton continued its blazing hot start to the season with a perfect 3-0-0 week and jumped back into the top spot among Canadian teams, temporarily lost to Calgary last week. The Oilers showed how dangerous their offence can be as McDavid scored an early goal-of-the-year candidate to tie up the game late against the Rangers before Leon Draisaitl got the game-winner in overtime for his 10th point this week.

Thanks to a 6-0 beatdown of the Rangers on Saturday, the Flames kept their place in the top three, despite two overtime losses to kick off the week. The Flames now have points in their last 10 games and remain hot on the Oilers’ heels both in these rankings and in the standings. Despite rumours of being involved in a Jack Eichel trade, Matthew Tkachuk continued to produce with goals in his last four games and points in his last six, ending the week with a four-point night against the Rangers.

The results are finally catching up to the strong underlying numbers for the Maple Leafs, who jumped all the way into the top five after a perfect 3-0-0 week, giving us a third Canadian team in the top five. They have the best expected goal differential in the NHL for the third week in a row and thanks to a +8 week in the goal department, have finally made their goal differential climb out of the negative to sit perfectly even.

The Jets continued their steady climb in our Power Rankings, despite one of the worst expected goal differentials in the NHL for a third straight week. Their offence ranks top 10 in the league in goals scored, but only three teams attempt fewer shots from the slot per game than the Jets, which is not exactly an encouraging sign for long-term success. They’ll continue to climb as long as they win, but they are a prime candidate for regression going forward.

A 6-3 win against the Dallas Stars snapped a streak of five games decided by a single goal for Vancouver. With a perfectly even goal differential and nearly even expected goal differential, it’s no surprise that the Canucks always seem to get themselves into close games and it reflects in their .458 point percentage.

One step forward, two steps back has been the story of the Canadiens this season, and the past week was no different as Montreal kicked things off with a convincing 3-0 win against the Red Wings, only to follow it up with two losses by a combined 11-4 score. They did climb a spot in these Rankings, but it has more to do with others dropping than their own performance.

Ottawa is the only Canadian team to lose positions in this week’s Power Rankings, as they fell behind the Canadiens to become the lowest-ranked team north of the border. Allowing Chicago to win their first game of the season in dominant fashion to kick off a 0-3-1 week will do that to a team.