It isn’t everyday that we come across an amazing stick save, but last night’s NHL action provided us with two.

In the Blue Corner, we have four-time Vezina trophy winner, three-time Stanley Cup winner, and two-time Olympic gold medalist, from the New Jersey Devils, Martin Brodeur!

During a battle against their bitter rivals from Manhattan, Brodeur appeared to be down and out after Marian Gaborik delivered a perfect feed to Olli Jokinen early in the second period.  Thankfully, his stick made it over to the far post in time to prevent the Rangers from tying it at 2-2.  They eventually would, but the Devils would come out on top at the end by a score of 6-3.

And in the Red Corner, the former Calder winner with the Boston Bruins, now backup goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks, we have Andrew Raycroft!

With the scored tied 0-0 in the first few minutes of the game, before even getting warmed up, Raycroft had to make an unbelievable stick save to keep the game scoreless.  After making a save on the initial point shot, he turned what appeared to be a hopeless situation into one of this season’s wildest saves, twisting his body as he fell backwards to stop the Coyotes’ Lee Stempniak on the rebound.  Raycroft would eventually let in three goals over the course of the game (including one from Stempniak).  It was good enough to earn one point, but the Canucks would end up losing this game in a shootout.

So which is the better save?  Both displayed an incredible amount of athletic ability and awareness.  This is not an easy decision, but I think I’d have to go with Raycroft here.  That early in the game, on the road, and just when it appeared as though he couldn’t do anything else to stop Stempniak after stretching out his left pad, he gave himself one last chance and made it count (not that you can’t say the same for Brodeur).

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Chicago Blackhawks as they fell 4 spots to end up at #11. It looked like the injury to Jonathan Toews hurt the team more than people thought it would. However, Toews is back this week so expect the Hawks to climb back up the rankings.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the San Jose Sharks and New Jersey Devils both moving up 3 spots to land at #3 and #10 respectively. After a bad start the Sharks have been consistently climbing up the rankings while the Devils finally seem to be adapting to Jacques Lamaire‘s system cracking the top 10 for the first time this season.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 6.

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		12-4-2	1	Despite losing at home for the first time this season the Avs are still on a roll and this young team hasn’t shown any signs of letting up.
2		12-5-0	1	Injuries are starting to pile up, first it was Sergei Gonchar then it was Evgeni Malkin and now it looks like Kris Letang could be out for a few games as well.
3		12-4-2	3	A nice week for the Sharks including a 5-0 shutout win over the Penguins.
4		9-5-2	-	The Jackets are on a bit of a run as of late winning 3 of their last 4 games.
5		10-4-1	-	Nice week for Flames captain Jarome Iginla as he recorded 5 points in Calgary’s 3 games last week.
6		10-7-1	3	Had a rough Western Canadian road trip losing to the Canucks and Flames.
7		9-4-1	1	Like a well priced suit the Flyers have been “Tip Top” as they’ve now won 4 games in a row.
8		10-5-2	1	Had two big wins over the Coyotes and Penguins last week.
9		10-3-4	2	After a rough start the Caps have become acustomed to life without Alexander Ovechkin winning their last two games in a row.
10		11-4-0	3	Guess you can call the Devils “Old School” as they’ve been streaking winning their last 5 games in a row.
11		8-5-2	4	Had a bad short week losing to the Coyotes and Avalanche.
12		9-4-1	2	Week started off promising with their 3-0 win over the Islanders but ended up losing to the Flyers and Bruins in their next two games.
13		10-7-0	1	The Coyotes’ luck seems to be running out as they lost 3 of their 4 games last week.
14		7-5-3	1	Appeared to be turning the corner but then put up a dud against the Leafs on Saturday night.
15		6-4-5	2	Have gone on a nice little roll collecting 5 out of a possible 6 points in their last 3 games thanks to the solid play of goaltender Antero Niittymaki.
16		8-8-1	2	Were able to put an end to their 3 game losing streak with a surprising 5-3 win over the Avs in Colorado.
17		10-8-0	2	The Canucks have been just fine without Roberto Luongo getting some solid goaltending from both Andrew Raycroft and Cory Schneider.
18		7-5-2	2	Have had a so-so year so far but will get a boost to their power play with the return of Filip Kuba.
19		7-7-2	2	Were able to put an end to their 3 game winless streak with a 4-2 win over the Sabres.
20		7-4-6	2	After falling 3-2 to the Flames in overtime were able to squeak out a 2-1 win over the Canucks Friday night.
21		7-6-1	3	Despite the so-so start there is some positive news as Rich Peverley leads the team in points with 17 in 14 games.
22		6-7-2	2	If last week is any indication the Ducks appear to be close to turning the corner but they have a long way to climb up the standings.
23		7-7-1	-	Saw their 3 game winning streak come to an end with a 4-0 loss to the Ducks.
24		8-9-0	-	Carey Price looked solid in the Habs 2-1 shootout win over the rival Bruins.
25		6-6-5	1	The young Islanders had a nice convincing 6-3 win over the Thrashers Saturday night.
26		5-6-4	1	The Blues start a 6 game home stand against 3 fairly tough opponents in Vancouver, Nashville and San Jose.
27		5-9-1	-	Started off the week promising but ended up losing back-to-back games to the Capitals.
28		3-7-5	1	Seems like Phil Kessel and Jonas Gustavsson have helped turn things around for the Leafs as Phil has 3 points in his first 3 games as a Leaf and The Monster has a .918 SAV% and 2.60 GAA in his first 7 starts with the club.
29		6-10-0	1	Will be interesting to see if they can turn things around as they embark on a 4 game Eastern road trip.
30		2-11-3	-	Just when you thought things couldn’t have gotten any worse, Cam Ward falls victim to a fluke injury that will see him sit out 1 month and forced the ‘Canes to sign veteran UFA goaltender Manny Legace.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 7.

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Up front the Avalanche look good with Milan Hejduk, Ian Laperriere, Ryan Smyth, Paul Stastny, Marek Svatos, Darcy Tucker and Tyler Arnason.  Joe Sakic will look to prove that he still has something left in the tank and Wojtek Wolski should have a great year. 

On defence the Avs are decent, but don’t quite have the legs to compete with Minnesota, Calgary or even Edmonton.  Adam Foote, Scott Hannan and Ruslan Salei are all solid in their own end but two out of the three are old and the other has injury issues.  John-Michael Liles will provide some offence from the blueline, but unfortunately he’s the only one.  Brett Clark is a more stay-at-home defenceman and Daniel Tjarnqvist can’t be relied upon to score points.  Jordan Leopold has yet to reach his potential and with his injury history I don’t think he ever will. 

Now, the most obvious weakness is in net. Peter Budaj isn’t quite good enough to be a #1 and Andrew Raycroft showed in Toronto that when the game counts he crumbles under the pressure.  Unless they improve their defence and goaltending, even with their forwards, Colorado will be watching playoff hockey from home this year.