Sports suck. They entertain you all season, build up your hope as the playoffs and the championship get closer, only to rip your heart out at the perfect moment and destroy you. If there\u2019s one thing I truly learned freezing my ass off in Nathan Phillips Square on Saturday night in Toronto, it\u2019s that sports are about being sad in a group (credit Acting the Fulemin for that one).<\/p>\n
Wait, is this supposed to be about hockey or baseball? I can\u2019t remember through the fog of alcohol and depression.<\/p>\n
Hunter Crowther and I navigate through the season with another year of our co-op power rankings. I have my same old system in which I aggregate six stats (points %, 5-on-5 goal differential, 5-on-5 xGF\/60, 5-on-5 xGA\/60, power play xGF\/60, and shorthanded xGA\/60, all coming courtesy of Natural Stat Trick) to come up with a list that eliminates my own biases, along with a rule that no team can be above a team that\u2019s more than five points ahead of them in the standings, regardless of where the aggregate places them. On the other hand, Hunter goes off his own intellect and pure vibes, and together we find a way to combine it and meet in the middle.<\/p>\n
Record: 7-1-5, +12
Last Week: 1st (0)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 1st
Scott\u2019s Rank: 1st<\/p>\n
Scott: Hunter and I got some backlash from Devils fans last week for putting the Avalanche in first place over the Devils despite a 4-3 (overtime) win for the Devils on the Sunday before our list.<\/p>\n
Well that didn\u2019t age well.<\/p>\n
In example number 10,000 of why we don\u2019t decide on one team over the other based on one game against each other, the Avalanche doubled up the Devils in an 8-4 win two days later, and followed that up with a 4-2 win over the Golden Knights. The loss to the Sharks isn\u2019t great, but they got sewered by a rough season debut from Mackenzie Blackwood, and Yaroslav Askarov was fantastic at the other end. Until further notice, this is still the best team in the league.<\/p>\n
Record: 6-5-1, -3
Last Week: 8th (+6)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 3rd
Scott\u2019s Rank: 2nd<\/p>\n
Hunter: Like the ice that cracks every November when Mariah Carey is informed<\/a> it\u2019s the holiday season, the Panthers are back. Their Tuesday matchup against the Ducks was one of the most one-sided efforts<\/a> in modern NHL history, nearly doubling their shot total and controlling possession for what felt like the entire game. And they still lost 3-2 in a shootout. They followed that with another dominant performance against the Stars and still needed a shootout to beat them. Their record may not indicate it, but a Florida lineup with injuries is still among the best in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 7-4-0, +9 Scott: The Hurricanes have stagnated a bit with four losses in their last six games, but the first two thirds of that stretch came against equally strong teams in the Golden Knights (twice), the Avalanche and the Stars. The loss to the Bruins is a bit more concerning, but the Canes still look strong in the early going, and Nikolaj Ehlers (four assists in his last six games) and Andrei Svechnikov (three points in his last three games) are finally showing some signs of life after poor starts.<\/p>\n Record: 9-3-0, +8 Hunter: Only two games last week, but in both their overtime wins against the Kraken and Senators, the Canadiens looked dominant, controlling play for most of the game and generating high-quality shots. They\u2019ve won five of their last six games and nine of their last 11, and Cole Caufield, with three goals and two assists in those two wins this week, is knocking on the door of USA Hockey, telling them he\u2019s needed this February.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott: He\u2019s 100% going to lose a spot to Chris Kreider again, I can feel it.<\/p>\n Hunter: And there\u2019s a 100% chance I\u2019m going to drink from the Johnnie Walker Blue bottle when Canada celebrates its third-straight gold medal in an Olympic tournament played by NHLers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 8-3-2, +10 Scott: I\u2019m not entirely shocked that the Penguins are rated so highly by my model. Even in the past three years where they\u2019ve been outside of the playoff picture, my model always enjoyed their performance under the hood, so the fact those numbers have taken a step forward along with the on-ice results means a third-place ranking for me. I am a bit surprised that those numbers carried over after Mike Sullivan left, but Dan Muse has either found a way to improve on that performance or managed to stay out of Sid, Geno and Co.\u2019s way.<\/p>\n Record: 6-2-3, +7 Hunter: The Golden Knights cooled off a bit since their four-game winning streak, dropping three of four, two of those coming against the Florida-based squads whom many had beside them on their preseason Stanley Cup contender lists. I thought Mitch Marner would have scored in more than two games at this stage of the season (watch those words come back to bite me). Adin Hill\u2019s injury is clearly affecting the team\u2019s results, and there\u2019s no timeline as to when he\u2019ll return. There\u2019s a chance they won\u2019t have a legitimate starting NHL goalie until Dec. 1 when Carter Hart is eligible, and there\u2019s no telling how rusty he\u2019ll be upon return.<\/p>\n Scott: I hope he\u2019s extremely rusty. To unplayable levels even.<\/p>\n Record: 6-5-2, 0 Hunter: Last week I wrote that, despite three straight losses and a 3-5-2 record, the Rangers were Actually Good \u00a9. Since then? Three games on the west coast, winning all three, including a 4-3 overtime win over the Oilers that included a comeback from being down 3-1. They\u2019ve got some juice; now imagine how good they would be if Artemi Panarin could break a five-game pointless streak.<\/p>\n Record: 8-4-0, +8 Hunter: I watched most of the Mammoth\u2019s Sunday afternoon matinee against the Lightning, and while the Lightning earned a regulation win with a Jake Guentzel goal midway through the third, it felt like Utah did a great job of suffocating Tampa\u2019s breakouts and frustrating them in their own zone. Logan Cooley\u2019s freshly signed eight-year extension<\/a> with a $10 million AAV turned heads this week; some may think that\u2019s way too much for someone they\u2019ve heard of in passing, but today\u2019s $10 million AAV is yesterday\u2019s $6.5 million. It\u2019s a whole new NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 9-4-0, +6 Scott: While the Avalanche have managed to maintain the top spot with how they\u2019ve performed this week, the Devils haven\u2019t shared the same fate. They\u2019ve lost three of their last four, and while one was that rematch with the Avs, two were to the Sharks and Ducks. New Jersey also saw their play step back, which is why this slump has dropped them so far down. Well that and the competition is so close right now.<\/p>\n Hunter: I came into the season expecting them to improve off of last season\u2019s 91-point performance, and I still expect that to happen. They looked downright atrocious last week, both with the eye test and in the numbers, but what\u2019s most important is that each of New Jersey\u2019s NFL-based teams (look it up) are also very bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 9-3-0, +15 Scott: It genuinely impresses me how badly this Jets team is playing right now. Do you want to guess how many games this season has seen them win the expected goal battle? TWO! And that was with percentages of 50.15% and 52.73%. Yes, they should see some improvement when Adam Lowry, Cole Perfetti, Gustav Nyquist and Dylan Samberg return, and they can get away with this when you have Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor shooting the lights out and Connor Hellebuyck playing like Connor Hellebuyck. But still, this poor play is staggering, and I don\u2019t think Hellebuyck can save them all season from that.<\/p>\n Record: 6-4-2, +2 Hunter: We made so much about the Lightning\u2019s horrid start to the season, winning one game in their first seven, only for them to follow it with five straight victories. What a weird sport. The reports of Andrei Vasilevskiy\u2019s decline were greatly exaggerated, as he\u2019s allowed just four goals in his last three starts. Once Nikita Kucherov gets back to his \u201crecording a stupid amount of points\u201d stage of the season, the Lightning will be back in the top 10.<\/p>\n Scott: I still have plenty of concerns about their back end, but they\u2019ve at least returned to their form last year, which was \u201creally good team with an obvious flaw that needs fixing\u201d instead of \u201cthis team is a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n Record: 9-3-0, +3 Scott: While the California road trip (plus the Blues) still isn\u2019t the gauntlet that it used to be, the Red Wings should be happy with taking three of the four games, and a win against St. Louis before that gives them four wins in their last five games. Still, the Red Wings have always had hot starts. The actual good sign of the season so far is that they\u2019re driving play much better than past seasons. Keep that up and they may have a much better chance of sneaking into the playoffs this season.<\/p>\n Hunter: Part of me still wonders if reality will come crashing down on the Red Wings, or if this team is legitimate. I would feel a lot better about their playoff chances if they had better goaltending, especially since the combined goals saved above expected between Cam Talbot and John Gibson is 0.4 and their combined save percentage is .886. If one of them breaks out or Steve Yzerman spends assets to get someone, now we\u2019re cooking with gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 6-5-1, +2 Scott: Alex Ovechkin still hasn\u2019t hit the 900-goal mark, as his two goals through 12 games feels a lot more like 2023-24 Ovi and not 2024-25 Ovi. That\u2019s bad news for almost the entire hockey world \u2013 except for our lovely editor Matt Larkin, who hasn\u2019t had to remove Ovi getting 900 from his This Week in the NHL series <\/a>yet. Then again, there\u2019s been some inconsistencies in his linemate recently, especially with Dylan Strome and Pierre-Luc Dubois in and out of the lineup.<\/p>\n Hunter: Their next game is Wednesday against a Blues team that\u2019s allowed the most goals in the NHL. I say he doesn\u2019t do it, but he will the following night in Pittsburgh against Crosby and the Penguins. It would be fitting to do it against the player he\u2019s been tied to for more than 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 7-3-1, +7 Scott: You can\u2019t complain about what the Ducks did last week, beating three teams that have been performing really well so far this season in the Panthers, Red Wings and Devils. Anaheim is still horrible defensively, but they make up for it in both their high-octane offense and having one of the most underrated goalies in the league in Lukas Dostal. At the very least, the Ducks know how to put on a show.<\/p>\n Record: 6-3-3, -3 Hunter: \u00a0It feels like we\u2019re getting repeats of the Stars\u2019 2024-25 season, where they would win three straight, lose three straight, win two, lose four, win four, etc.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the one-goal results fool you, as they were outplayed badly by the Lightning and Panthers this week, and things only stayed close because of impressive performances by Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith. Beyond the top line of Jason Robertson-Wyatt Johnston-Mikko Rantanen, this Stars group is lacking \u201coomph.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott: Shockingly, it\u2019s not the Stars\u2019 defense causing the problems this time, as their offense just can\u2019t get anything going right now as far as chance creation goes. They\u2019ve enjoyed the luxury of insane forward depth the past couple seasons, and they miss it right now.<\/p>\n Record: 6-4-3, 0 Hunter: What\u2019s frustrating about putting together these lists and reviewing how these teams play is that, for a lot of them, early-season struggles are to be expected, and how they look in March and April will look nothing like they did in the previous week. When it comes to the Oilers, while they still have pressing issues like goaltending and what appears to be a lack of speed deep in the lineup, they showed flashes of themselves in their three games this week, especially after the first period against the Mammoth. That being said \u2014 should we be concerned about McDavid only scoring one goal in his first 10 games and now only having three? Ehhhh, probably not.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 7-5-0, +4 Scott: At times, the Blue Jackets can look like one of the better teams in the league, and then at other times, they look like one of the worst. They\u2019re a tough team to nail down, so the middle of the pack seems to be the perfect spot for them. Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov have certainly impressed so far, and the fact that Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson haven\u2019t quite hit their stride yet tells me that this team still has another gear to them, especially if their goaltending continues to be as good as it\u2019s been.<\/p>\n Record: 6-5-2, -3 Hunter: It\u2019s hard to envision how a team that was 10th last week, then won their first game of the week 7-2, could crash to 18th in just a few days. But that\u2019s life with the Senators, who looked putrid for large chunks of their losses to the Blackhawks and Canadiens. Drake Batherson has been great this season, recording points in all but two of the team\u2019s first 10 games of 2025-26. In fact, check out this beautiful pass against Ottawa in overtime from Saturday.\u00a0*listens to earpiece* Wait, I\u2019m told he plays for Ottawa.<\/p>\n Record: 6-5-1, -1 Hunter: You know what? It doesn\u2019t matter. This team got a free pass from their mediocre play to start the season with another Toronto-based team in the Blue Jays getting as close to winning a championship as humanly possible, only for it to be ripped from them in the most heartbreaking way imaginable. I\u2019m typing this and I\u2019m still in shock, replaying the key moments from Games 6 and 7 in my head, over and over and over. Oh the Leafs power play is 29th in the league? I just watched my favorite team blow a World Series ring with two outs remaining in the ninth.<\/p>\n But with the Blue Jays\u2019 magical run over and the NBA\u2019s Raptors not exactly a barnburner, fans will turn their attention to the Leafs, and there will be nowhere to hide.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott: It\u2019s not even been 36 hours and I\u2019m already seeing Leafs hot takes. The people of Toronto are traumatized and angry, and after watching Vlad and Bo actually show up in the playoffs, they aren\u2019t going to be happy watching this group.<\/p>\n Record: 5-4-4, -7 Hunter: Speaking of the World Series, the city of Los Angeles is not really a city, but merely hundreds of scattered suburbs and millions of failed actors who still screw up drink orders. Hollywood is overrated and I\u2019ve never cared for the Lakers, the Clippers, the fake NFL teams in the Rams and Chargers, but I especially hate the Dodgers. Screw Freddie Freeman and his Joe Biden-like veneers, or Blake Snell, who looks like the grown-up version of Beans from Even Stevens<\/a>. Tell Shohei Ohtani I want the hat and the dog jacket he got during his Blue Jays visit back. I wish the Dodgers and their fans who skip the final innings to beat traffic a very rainy championship parade.\u00a0<\/p>\n As for the Kings, I don\u2019t know how you can get utterly destroyed in expected goals by the Sharks of all teams, but still win, only to follow that up by whooping the Devils in expected goals and lose.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 5-4-3, -1 Hunter: You know what? The Sabres deserved a win against the lowly Bruins, but at least they got points in all three games last week, despite losing two of them. Josh Doan had goals in back-to-back games, and Alex Tuch is having flashes of the nearly 80-point campaign he posted for Buffalo in 2022-23. I ranked them pretty low this week, but I\u2019ll be curious to see how they perform against a Mammoth squad that\u2019s lapping them in terms of youthful teams succeeding, as well as a floundering Blues lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott: I didn\u2019t rank them low though, this team still continues to intrigue me, and the potential may be there for this to finally be the year. There\u2019s still lots of runway left, but I like what I see.<\/p>\n Record: 5-2-4, -2 Scott: The Kraken have slowed down a little bit since their 3-0-2 start, now 2-2-2 in their last six games, but what might be more impressive is how much close hockey they\u2019ve played this season. Only four of their 11 games haven\u2019t been decided by one goal, and of their 679:53 minutes of hockey played this season, 538:45 of it has been played in a one-goal game situation. They\u2019re still 2-2 in two-or-more-goal games, but this feels like something that won\u2019t sustain itself all season.<\/p>\n Record: 6-5-1, +2 Scott: Not much has really changed in Philadelphia since last week. They\u2019ve gone 2-2-0 last week, so they\u2019re still playing above where they probably want to be, and Trevor Zegras is still playing some entertaining hockey and looking like his old self. I think Flyers fans are just happy they\u2019re actually getting some goaltending this season, as Dan Vladar just playing like normal has been well above the standard in recent years in Philly.<\/p>\n Record: 6-5-1, -2 Hunter: I don\u2019t want to spend each week talking about Matthew Schaefer, but it\u2019s worth mentioning an impressive two-goal performance against the Blue Jackets on Sunday. Head coach Patrick Roy cut his ice time after Monday\u2019s loss to the Bruins, but that could also be Roy realizing that giving an 18-year-old defenseman between 22 and 27 minutes a night during a five-game stretch may not be helping anyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 5-4-3, +3 Hunter: Having covered the Blackhawks in a previous job, I\u2019ve always had a soft spot for the group, and seeing them get better as the season goes on is a treat. Despite losing two of three last week, they matched the Jets and Oilers \u2014 two strong Western Conference teams capable of making deep playoff runs \u2014 shot for shot, despite what the results show. One quick shoutout to Tyler Bertuzzi, who signed a long-term deal with Chicago but struggled in his first season with the team. This season, he\u2019s looked more dangerous around the net and is winning more puck battles along the boards.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 6-7-0, -6 Scott: The Canucks are a tough team to crack right now. On one hand, I don\u2019t want to get too worried about their performance so far due to all of their injuries, especially the ones to Quinn Hughes and Conor Garland. But then even when Hughes has been playing, he\u2019s looked a step below what he usually brings to the table, and the rest of the team has been just as underwhelming. Keifer Sherwood is looking like their best player right now, and while he\u2019s had a hot start, that\u2019s not a good sign.<\/p>\n Hunter: One positive about this group is Thatcher Demko finding the form he carried through the 2023-24 season, with an even-strength save percentage of .931, despite giving up three 5-on-5 goals against the Wild on Saturday. Selfishly, I want them and the other Canadian teams to at least compete for a playoff spot, but that won\u2019t happen with the likes of Garland and Sherwood leading in scoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n Side note: Sherwood having nine goals and zero assists through 13 games is the funniest statline in hockey. How does someone have a hand in more than a quarter of a team\u2019s offense and have no assists to show for it?\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott: I believe people would say he\u2019s in the running for the Cy Young.<\/p>\n Record: 5-6-2, -10 Scott: I don\u2019t have a lot to say about the Predators right now. They\u2019ve been very mediocre right now, and outside of Roman Josi\u2019s injury and the fact that they only had an 8.78% 5v5 score-adjusted expected goals share in their 5-2 loss to the Lightning, there isn\u2019t a lot happening in Nashville. Instead I\u2019ll just plug our colleague Kyle Morton\u2019s piece<\/a> on how Barry Trotz has not been a very good general manager after more than two years.<\/p>\n Record: 7-7-0, -3 Hunter: Just like the Kings, I don\u2019t know how the Bruins can get manhandled in expected goals by the Sabres, then beat them in overtime, only for them to do the same to the Hurricanes and squeak out a 2-1 win. Such a fickle game we love so dearly. The four wins in five games mask a lot of the issues they have, and they\u2019re in the bottom third of the league in stats like goal differential, expected goals and shot attempts. I think they\u2019ll crater soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record: 3-9-2, -17 Scott: It may be a bit surprising that I\u2019m high on the Flames (if high means I don\u2019t think they\u2019re the worst team in the league), but that\u2019s solely because their underlying numbers have actually been decent so far this year. However, I don\u2019t think that means this team will bounce back at some point. Dustin Wolf has struggled, they don\u2019t have any finishing talent, and if this keeps up right now, they\u2019ll get even worse once they offload players like Rasmus Andersson, Blake Coleman and Nazem Kadri. For Mike Gould\u2019s sake<\/a>, I hope this team gets Gavin McKenna.<\/p>\n Record: 4-6-3, -11 Scott: OK, so the Sharks bucked the trend that I had mentioned last week where they had at least one 10+ goal game every week. But they\u2019ve been playing spoiler this week, snagging wins against the Devils and the Avalanche during a four-game homestand. I\u2019m not going to pretend like they play good hockey, but they continue to be entertaining.<\/p>\n Record: 3-7-2, -17 Hunter: *SCENE: Seymour Skinner, pointing at the St. Louis Blues*\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last Week: 3rd (0)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 2nd
Scott\u2019s Rank: 4th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 9th (+5)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 5th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 7th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 11th (+6)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 10th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 3rd<\/p>\n
Last Week: 5th (-1)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 4th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 9th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 12th (+5)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 8th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 5th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 4th (-4)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 9th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 6th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 2nd (-7)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 6th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 10th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 17th (+7)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 7th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 11th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 21st (+10)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 11th\u00a0
Scott\u2019s Rank: 8th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 18th (+6)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 13th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 12th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 6th (-7)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 14th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 13th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 13th (-1)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 16th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 14th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 7th (-8)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 12th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 20th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 14th (-2)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 15th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 18th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 16th (-1)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 17th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 17th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 10th (-8)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 18th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 16th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 23rd (+4)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 19th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 21st<\/p>\n
Last Week: 19th (-1)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 21st
Scott\u2019s Rank: 19th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 26th (+5)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 26th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 15th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 15th (-7)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 20th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 23rd<\/p>\n
Last Week: 20th (-3)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 22nd
Scott\u2019s Rank: 22nd<\/p>\n
Last Week: 25th (+1)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 24th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 25th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 27th (+2)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 25th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 24th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 22nd (-4)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 23rd
Scott\u2019s Rank: 26th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 28th (+1)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 28th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 28th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 31st (+3)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 27th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 30th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 30th (+1)\u00a0
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 32nd
Scott\u2019s Rank: 27th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 32nd (+2)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 31st
Scott\u2019s Rank: 29th<\/p>\n
Last Week: 24th (-7)
Hunter\u2019s Rank: 29th
Scott\u2019s Rank: 31st<\/p>\n