Dec 23, 2015
Thumbs up to Stars, Habs as Canada's #1 team
TSN's Dave Hodge gives a “thumbs up” to the team that Santa Claus would visit if he were giving a present to the NHL’s best team - the Dallas Stars, and a “thumbs up” to the standings still identifying Montreal as Canada’s best team.
By Dave Hodge
NHL power rankings - I don’t compile them, and I don’t read them. I figure that’s what NHL standings are for - to tell me who the best teams are, and to put them in order. Oh, I know, power rankings go where the standings don’t, but let’s face it, they seldom differ a lot. I’ll pay attention to somebody’s power rankings when somebody tells me the best team in the NHL currently sits in 10th place.
But I would concede that power rankings are a worthwhile place to visit if you’re looking to answer this question: Dallas or Washington? Washington or Dallas?
Which team is the NHL’s best at the short holiday break? There’s no other answer - it’s the Stars or the Capitals. The standings say Dallas by two points, but Washington has two games in hand. The Stars score more, and yet the Capitals recently scored 
seven times against the Rangers. The Capitals defend better, and yet Dallas blanked Chicago 4-0 last night. When they met on November 19 in Washington, Dallas won 3-2 on Jason Spezza’s third-period winner. The game is best remembered for an Alex Ovechkin goal that saw him break Sergei Fedorov’s record for goals by a Russian-born player.
I’ll use that game to break the tie in my head and say “thumbs up” to the team that Santa Claus would visit if he were giving a present to the NHL’s best team - the Dallas Stars.
The rematch is February 13 at Dallas. It remains to be seen if the standings will still identify the Stars and the Capitals as the NHL’s two best teams. And I guess the power rankings will be worth a look, too.
View From The Top
The standings still identify Montreal as Canada’s best team so “thumbs up” to that, but there’s no way any other assessment would agree. And the standings now begin to show Montreal’s position atop the Atlantic Division as a precarious one.
The lead is a single point over Boston and Florida - yes, Florida! The Canadiens’ playoff cushion is only four points. They need Brendan Gallagher and Carey Price. They’ll get them in that order. Gallagher should help to address the team’s biggest problem, which is lack of scoring, but it is becoming evident - and it should have been evident all along - that the Habs need Price to be themselves.
Meanwhile, they need Mike Condon and Dustin Tokarski to pull them through the road schedule that threatens to leave them in tatters after the eighth straight game away from home, January 5 in Philadelphia. A win or two doesn’t sound like much, but they’d probably take three points if you wrapped them and put them under a tree.
Stops in Washington, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Foxborough (Winter Classic vs. Boston) precede the game in Philly. It was never going to be easy, but it wasn’t supposed to seem this hard.