2009 NHL Power Rankings: Week 3

by: CoreyS On Friday, October 23, 2009

Total Pro Sports – In week 3 we’ve seen the top 2 teams in the league remain atop the NHL, some of the surprising teams start to slide a bit and teams who got off to a bad start show signs of turning things around. Oh, and the Leafs and Islanders still suck.

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Los Angeles Kings. After an impressive first two weeks the Kings appear to be coming back down to earth. Los Angeles is a young team with some talented players though so expect them to be up and down all season.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Colorado Avalanche. Most people expected the Avs to take a bit of a hit this week like the Kings but they just keep on rolling. A big reason for that is due to the play of goaltender Craig Anderson who’s collected 6 wins with a 2.09 GAA, .935 SAV% and one shutout.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 3.

Rank	Record	PRV	Comment
1	7-1-0	-	Nothing new here as the Rangers keep on rolling thanks to the play of rookie defenceman Michael Del Zotto and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
2	7-1-0	-	Just like the Rangers the Penguins continued their solid play thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury who has a 2.09 GAA and .922 SAV% in his first 7 games.
3	5-1-0	2	Off to a great start but are facing a tough 4-game road trip this week that will give us a glimpse of how good this team really is.
4	6-1-1	4	3rd overall pick Matt Duchene scored his first career NHL goal in the Avs surprising shootout victory over the Wings Saturday evening.
5	5-2-1	1	Lost a close one to Columbus and then almost blew a 5-0 lead in the 3rd period beating Vancouver 5-3.
6	5-2-1	1	Saw their 4-game winning streak come to an end with their 4-3 loss to the Stars on Saturday night.
7	3-2-1	1	Lost their only game of the week 4-2 to the Panthers.
8	4-4-0	5	Have comeback down to earth and find themselves on a 3-game losing streak.
9	4-2-1	-	Nikolai Khabibulin has played well so far giving the Oilers a chance to win every time he’s been in net and Dustin Penner is off to a great start with 9 points in his first 7 games.
10	4-3-1	-	Are 1-1 so far after two games on their current 6-game eastern road trip.
11	5-2-0	2	Ilya Bryzgalov won the NHL 1st Star of the Week honours after winning all 3 of the Coyotes games last week including a 1-0 shutout win over the Sharks.
12	5-2-0	2	Alex Kovalev shined against his former team with a goal and an assist in the Sens 3-1 win over the Habs Saturday night.
13	4-1-1	2	The Sabres broke out with back-to-back 6 goal games but weren’t as successful putting the puck in the net in their 4-2 loss to the Thrashers.
14	4-3-0	2	Saw their 3-game winning streak come to an end with their 4-2 loss to the Thrashers.
15	4-1-0	2	Atlanta’s strong start continues winning both of their games against the Devils and Sabres.
16	4-2-2	-	Nice win over the Sharks but had a tough time with the struggling Predators.
17	3-3-1	1	Will have to get their power play going if they want to start climbing up the standings.
18	3-3-1	1	The Wings have to tighten up their D and get some better goaltending from Chris Osgood if they want to get, and stay above, .500.
19	2-3-2	4	Lost 2 out of their 3 games while only scoring a combined 4 goals.
20	3-2-1	-	Managed to pick up 3 out of a possible 4 points losing to Phoenix in overtime 3-2 and beating Anaheim 5-0.
21	3-4-0	1	Henrik Sedin is playing well in his brother’s absence picking up 3 assists in the Canucks two games last week.
22	3-4-0	1	Will be interesting to see how the team plays with Milan Lucic out 4-6 weeks after breaking his finger against Dallas.
23	3-1-3	3	Solid week for the Stars shutting out the Predators 6-0 and beating the Blackhawks 4-3.
24	2-4-1	3	Rough start for Nashville as they find themselves on a 5-game winless streak.
25	2-4-0	3	Nice 4-2 win over the Flyers with Stephen Weiss scoring a goal and adding an assist for 2 points.
26	2-4-1	2	Not the best of weeks losing both of their games to the Penguins and Devils.
27	2-5-0	2	Lost both of their games to the Avalanche and Senators while only scoring a combined 3 goals in those losses.
28	1-6-0	1	The Wild are glad their 5-game road trip is over as they lost all 5 games. Big reason for the bad trip, only 10 combined goals in their 5 games.
29	0-3-3	-	Still looking for their first win after losing to the Kings, Sabres and Sharks.
30	0-6-1	-	They can’t score, can’t keep the puck out of their net, are using their 3rd and 4th string goaltenders and have yet to win a game, things can’t get any worse for the Leafs right now.