There are no changes in the top five of the TSN.ca NHL Power Rankings, meaning another week at the top for the Chicago Blackhawks.
However, as great as they have been this season, Chicago's reign is hardly a sure thing going forward. The gap between Chicago, Boston and Anaheim, in particular, has closed, especially as the Blackhawks are playing without Patrick Sharp, one of their better all-around performers.
Five wins in six games lifted the New York Rangers from 17 to nine, while eight wins in the last 10 gams helped bump the Los Angeles Kings from 15 to 10.
Getting defencemen Ryan Wilson and Erik Johnson back, as well as centre Ryan O'Reilly in the lineup helped lift the Colorado Avalanche from 27 to 19 and the Minnesota Wild vaulted from 20 to 11, riding a 9-4-1 record in their last 14 games.
San Jose has lost three in a row, dropping from seven to 14, and six losses in the last seven games dropped Vancouver from 12 to 17.
Shaky goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov -- no, really, it's true -- contributed to the Philadelphia Flyers falling from 13 to 18 and one regulation win in the last dozen games leaves the New Jersey Devils falling from 16 to 21.
Among the rest of the Canadian teams, Montreal remains ranked highest, at four. Toronto is up a couple spots to six and Ottawa slips a couple spots to 12. Winnipeg holds at 24, three spots ahead of Calgary, falling to 27, and the Edmonton Oilers are suddenly down at 29, a long way to fall for a team that peaked as high as 10 after the first couple weeks of the season.
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.
