There were no changes in the top four in this week's TSN.ca NHL Power Rankings, leaving the San Jose Sharks ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues.
The Montreal Canadiens crept into the Top Five, benefitting from two lineup additions: left winger Max Pacioretty's return from an appendectomy and the signing of defenceman P.K. Subban.
Anaheim climbed from 15 to nine, thanks to continued strong play from their supporting cast; same goes for the Islanders, who moved from 18 to 12.
Phoenix's 2-0-2 record last week was enough to vault from 22 to 13.
A bad run of injuries dropped the Colorado Avalanche from 14 to 20, while the Dallas Stars have struggled to generate offence and that, combined with an injury to left winger Ray Whitney, contributed to the Stars falling from 12 to 24.
The biggest drop of the week belonged to the Winnipeg Jets, who lost three games, by an 18-9 margin, and lost defenceman Dustin Byfuglien to injury. That resulted in a fall from nine to 26. Such is the volatility of the early-season rankings but, even so, that's a fairly dramatic move.
Other Canadian teams: Ottawa sans Spezza dipped from five to eight; Edmonton up from 11 to 10; Vancouver up from 16 to 15; Toronto climbed from 23 to 18 and one-win Calgary slipped from 26 to 28.
Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook.
