Neal knew this. The fans knew this. His teammates knew this. And the commentators knew this.

However, no one had really mentioned any of this throughout most of the series, but when someone finally did, it was almost as if Neal heard those words and wanted to silence them immediately.

He did just that, firing the game-winning goal in overtime over the left shoulder of Dwayne Roloson, milliseconds after Penguins’ color commentator Bob Errey had mentioned that Neal “needed just one so that he and everyone else would forget the last 21 games where he hasn’t really got on the board too much.”

Yes, history does have perfect timing.

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks, both falling 4 spots to end up at #14 and #20. As expected the Oilers are having an up and down season because of the core of their young players, but one veteran, Nikolai Khabibulin, has been consistently solid all season. Meanwhile the Ducks are still trying to look for some consistency of their own after a disappointing October.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders, both climbing up 3 spots to land at #6 and #26 respectively. Finally everything seems to be coming together for the Sharks, keep an eye on rookie defenceman Jason Dembers as he already has 10 points to start the season. The Islanders on the other hand have caught fire, mostly due to some solid goaltending by both Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 5.

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		11-3-0	-	Start off what will be a tough West Coast trip on Tuesday with games against Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
2		10-3-2	-	Had a great month of October as they currently sit tied for 1st overall with Pittsburgh heading into the month of November.
3		9-5-1	2	Henrik Lundqvist continues to play solid in net collecting his first shutout of the season in the Rangers 1-0 win over the Bruins.
4		7-5-1	-	Put an end to their 3 game losing streak with a 5-4 OT win over the Capitals.
5		7-4-1	2	Saw their 3 game winning streak snapped with back-to-back losses to the Avalanche and Red Wings.
6		10-4-1	3	After a so-so start the Sharks have finally started to play like everyone expected and are on a 4 game winning streak.
7		8-4-1	1	Have won 3 of their last 4 games and Cristobal Huet seems to have settled in nicely as the team’s #1 giving the Blackhawks some solid goaltending recently.
8		6-4-1	1	Rookie forward David Laliberte made people stand up and take notice scoring a goal and adding an assist in his first NHL game against the Hurricanes.
9		8-4-2	3	Anze Kopitar continues to rip it up as he now has 21 points in the first 14 games of the season.
10		8-2-1	1	Had a 4 game winning streak going until they got blown out 5-0 by the New York Islanders.
11		8-2-4	2	Things could get interesting in Washington with Alexander Ovechkin being out week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
12		9-4-0	2	The ‘Yotes are continuing to surprise, mostly because of the play by goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, as they’re on a 3 game winning streak.
13		8-4-0	1	Rebounded after a 4-1 loss to the Sabres with back-to-back 2-1 victories over the Bruins and Lightning.
14		7-6-1	4	Were barely able to avoid a disastrous collapse beating the Red Wings 6-5 via the shootout after blowing a 5-1 lead.
15		5-4-3	2	Had a successful Western Canadian road trip collecting 5 out of a possible 6 points.
16		6-4-2	1	Have lost 4 out of their last 5 games including a 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay.
17		4-3-4	1	Collected 3 out of a possible 4 points last week.
18		5-4-1	1	Were able to put an end to their 4 game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Senators.
19		8-7-0	1	Have done a decent job adapting to life without Roberto Luongo so far with a 2-1 shootut win over the Kings and a 3-0 win over the Avalanche.
20		4-6-2	4	Were the first team to loose to the Leafs and lost 3-2 to the Coyotes in the shootout.
21		6-6-1	-	The Bruins will be glad that October is over and done with. They didn’t have a terrible start but bigger things were, and still are, expected.
22		6-3-5	-	The emergence of James Neal continues as he now has 16 points in his first 14 games of the season.
23		6-6-1	2	Pekka Rinne is starting to play like he did last year allowing just 2 goals in his last 2 games including a 2-0 shutout win over the Blackhawks.
24		7-7-0	-	Have won 3 of their last 5 games including a shootout win over the rival Maple Leafs.
25		5-6-1	2	Have only been able to win 1 of their last 4 games and have been shutout in back-to-back losses to the Coyotes and Panthers.
26		4-4-5	3	Mid as well call them the New York Butters ’cause they’re on a roll winning 3 games in a row including a surprising 5-0 win over the Sabres.
27		4-7-1	-	Starting to show some signs of turning things around with back-to-back wins over the Stars and Blues.
28		5-9-0	2	Two tough losses to the Blackhawks and Predators but are showing signs of turning it around.
29		1-7-4	1	Were finally able to win their first game against the Ducks but followed it up with back-to-back OT losses and a shootout loss to the Habs.
30		2-8-3	2	Have now lost a staggering 9 games in a row. Aside from Babchuk, the ‘Canes are pretty much the same team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year so it’s just a matter of time before they break out of this slump.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 6.