NHL Power Rankings: Boston Bruins Grab Top Spot, Devils Plummet Without Jack Hughes
Back where they belong.
Well, to the fans on the North End anyway.
The Boston Bruins ran roughshod over both the NHL and B/R's weekly Power Rankings during the 2022-23 regular season and seem ready to do so again thanks to a 12-1-2 record through 15 games that's left them first in both the standings and the balloting.
Coach Jim Montgomery's team was a unanimous pick of the voters this week, displacing the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights after their four-week run at No. 1. The champs fell into a tie for second with the surging New York Rangers, and the top five was completed by the Dallas Stars in fourth and the Vancouver Canucks in fifth.
Among the week's biggest tumblers were the New Jersey Devils, whose plummet from eighth to 17th coincided with the absence of star forward Jack Hughes. He's been sidelined since November 3 with an upper-body injury but remains 10th in the league with 20 points.
Scroll through to see where your favorite team wound up and drop a rankings thought of your own in the comments.
NOTE: Votes compiled ahead of Wednesday's games.
32. San Jose Sharks
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Previous Ranking: 32
Overall Record: 2-13-1
All of a sudden, the two-game win streak that was the highlight of San Jose's early season has disappeared into three losses in which the Sharks have been outscored 14-4. The team has scored the fewest goals in the league (21) and allowed the most (71), accounting for a minus-50 goal differential that's the NHL's worst by 33.
31. Edmonton Oilers
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Previous Ranking: 31
Overall Record: 5-9-1
It wasn't what anybody had expected just a month earlier, but the skidding Oilers did make a coaching change when Jay Woodcroft was shown the door in favor of Kris Knoblauch. Edmonton defeated the New York Islanders in the new coach's first game and came out of a Wednesday showdown with Seattle exactly six points out of a would-be playoff spot.
30. Columbus Blue Jackets
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Previous Ranking: 26
Overall Record: 4-8-4
It's getting real in Columbus these days. And that means real ugly as it relates to the Blue Jackets, who've dropped six in a row (0-4-2) and 10 of 11 (1-6-4) on the heels of a 5-3 home loss to Pittsburgh Tuesday. "No systems are perfect," coach Pascal Vincent said, "but the compete level at key times wasn't good enough."
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29. Nashville Predators
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Previous Ranking: 27
Overall Record: 5-10-0
Staying on script has been a concern lately for the Predators and coach Andrew Brunette, who's seen four straight losses and six of seven after the team blew a 2-0 lead against Anaheim on Tuesday. "We go a little bit rogue and part of that is we're not mentally sharp," he said. "We're not grasping the big moments in games."
28. Chicago Blackhawks
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Previous Ranking: 30
Overall Record: 5-8-0
He was a good NHL player from the moment he took the ice, but Connor Bedard is taking it to an even more productive level in the last few days. He's scored two goals in each of his last two games while posting six total points. The 18-year-old center is on pace for 57 goals and 82 points.
27. Minnesota Wild
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Previous Ranking: 20
Overall Record: 5-8-2
The league's least-effective penalty killing unit was the downfall once again for the Wild, who've lost three in a row and seven of their last nine (2-6-1). Minnesota gave up five power-play goals in eight tries in an 8-3 home loss to Dallas on Sunday, dropping its penalty-kill rate to 63.5 percent.
26. Calgary Flames
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Previous Ranking: 29
Overall Record: 5-8-2
The return of goalie Jacob Markstrom after a two-game injury absence is the latest bit of good news for the Flames, who've gone 3-1-1 in their last five after dropping six in a row. Markstrom was out for two games with an upper-body issue but got back to stop 34 shots in a Tuesday win at Montreal.
25. Seattle Kraken
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Previous Ranking: 24
Overall Record: 5-8-4
The Kraken have struggled with penalty killing, scoring and limiting opposition goals in the early season, which has contributed to a sluggish start. Seattle entered Wednesday's games at 29th in the league with a 71.4 penalty-kill rate, 29th with 2.5 goals scored per game, and 25th with a 3.50 goals-against average.
24. New York Islanders
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Previous Ranking: 16
Overall Record: 5-6-4
The Islanders headed into Wednesday in the midst of a five-game losing streak (0-4-1) in which they'd been outscored 21-9. Their 33 goals through 14 games were second-fewest in the NHL to only San Jose and no New York player was among the league's top 80 scorers. And then a 4-3 loss to Vancouver on Wednesday extended the losing streak to six.
23. Ottawa Senators
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Previous Ranking: 28
Overall Record: 6-7-0
An uneven start to the 2023-24 season continued for the Senators on Saturday when they defeated Calgary to end a five-game home losing streak. Ottawa had won its first three games at Canadian Tire Center before the skid and was even with Columbus at the bottom of the Eastern Conference through Wednesday.
22. Buffalo Sabres
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Previous Ranking: 17
Overall Record: 7-8-1
It was far from good news for the Sabres on Tuesday, when they dropped a 5-2 decision to Boston and lost top-line center Tage Thompson due to injury after he blocked a shot and was later cut by a skate. "Tage is going to miss some time here," coach Don Granato said. "Probably significant time, unfortunately."
21. Montreal Canadiens
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Previous Ranking: 22
Overall Record: 7-7-2
The goaltending has largely held up, but it's the offense that's gone away lately as the Canadiens find themselves in a 2-5-1 funk over their last eight games. Montreal, which has scored two or fewer goals in four of the losses and no more than three goals in any game since October 28, is 25th in the league in per-game offense.
19. (Tie) Tampa Bay Lightning
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Previous Ranking: 10
Overall Record: 6-6-4
Two straight shutout losses made the headlines for the Lightning, but coach Jon Cooper insisted that the story was what was happening on the other end for a team that's dropped three in a row. "It's not our offense," he said. "We're giving up gifts, and we're having good stretches in the game. That's been the story this year. It's just giving up those easy ones."
19. (Tie) Philadelphia Flyers
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Previous Ranking: 25
Overall Record: 8-7-1
It was four days short of a year between NHL victories for goalie Cal Petersen, and what better opponent than the team that traded him away in the offseason. The 29-year-old stopped 35 shots to defeat the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, after going 0-2-2 in four games since defeating Edmonton on Nov. 16, 2022.
18. Arizona Coyotes
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Previous Ranking: 18
Overall Record: 7-6-2
An overtime loss at Dallas on Tuesday continued a trend of inconsistency for the Coyotes, who've gone back and forth between winning and losing in each of their last nine games. Arizona opened the season with three wins in five games, lost two in a row on October 24 and 27, and have since alternated W's and L's while going 4-2-2 in eight games.
17. New Jersey Devils
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Previous Ranking: 8
Overall Record: 7-6-1
It's only been a few games, but it definitely hasn't been the same New Jersey team since scoring leader Jack Hughes was injured in the first period of a November 3 contest at St. Louis. The Devils lost that one and have won just once in four subsequent games while being outscored 22-13 overall. Hughes may return Thursday or Saturday, per ESPN's Emily Kaplan.
16. Pittsburgh Penguins
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Previous Ranking: 23
Overall Record: 8-6-0
It's nice to have a legend to help get a team out of a slump. That's the role taken up lately by Sidney Crosby, whose nine-game point streak has partially coincided with a Pittsburgh uptick that's yielded five straight wins. The "Kid" scored three Tuesday night in Columbus and has 14 points in his recent run.
15. Carolina Hurricanes
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Previous Ranking: 9
Overall Record: 9-7-0
A fifth career shutout for youngster Pyotr Kochetkov in Tampa on Saturday was a welcome Sunshine State sendoff after the Hurricanes had dropped a 5-2 decision to the Florida Panthers the night before in metro Miami. It was Carolina's sixth win in eight games before a Wednesday night loss to visiting Philadelphia.
14. Anaheim Ducks
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Previous Ranking: 15
Overall Record: 9-7-0
The Ducks are serving their surprise with a side of drama so far in 2023-24, which has seen them win six times via third-period comebacks, making them the first NHL team to accomplish that in the season's first 15 games. They trailed 2-0 late in the second before rallying for a 3-2 defeat of Nashville on Tuesday.
13. St. Louis Blues
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Previous Ranking: 21
Overall Record: 8-5-1
Three straight wins and five of the last six, including two shutouts, have the Blues walking and talking a little more proudly these days, especially at home. Goalie Jordan Binnington is 4-1-0 at the Enterprise Center with a 1.58 goals-against average and .951 save percentage this season. "It's a month or two of working hard and buying in," he said.
11. (Tie) Winnipeg Jets
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Previous Ranking: 14
Overall Record: 8-5-2
There's not a hotter goal-scorer in the league these days than Kyle Connor, who's scored seven times in a four-game point streak and was tied for the league lead at 13 (with Toronto's Auston Matthews) heading into Wednesday's games. "That real scoring knack is something that you can try to teach," defenseman Josh Morrissey said, "but he just has it naturally."
11. (Tie) Detroit Red Wings
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Previous Ranking: 12
Overall Record: 8-5-2
The Red Wings rallied from a goal down to beat Columbus on Saturday and at least temporarily stall a skid that had seen them go 2-4-2 in eight games. Alex DeBrincat scored a goal against the Blue Jackets to get to 10 on the season, reaching that side of the scoresheet for the first time since October 24.
10. Toronto Maple Leafs
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Previous Ranking: 11
Overall Record: 8-5-2
The Maple Leafs are off to Sweden to play in the NHL's Global Series on the heels of a 5-2 home win against surging Vancouver that was backstopped by goalie Ilya Samsonov's 31 saves. It was the goalie's first win since mid-October after he'd gone 0-1-2 in five previous games and got pulled twice.
9. Washington Capitals
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Previous Ranking: 19
Overall Record: 8-4-2
Veteran goalie Darcy Kuemper left a Wednesday practice after being hit with a shot on an unpadded area of the leg. Coach Spencer Carbery labeled Kuemper's status as "not ideal." The 33-year-old had already missed the team's previous two games with an undisclosed injury. Kuemper last played on November 8 and hasn't won since October 29.
8. Colorado Avalanche
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Previous Ranking: 6
Overall Record: 10-5-0
The stars got onboard and a coaching milestone was secured for Colorado in a Monday win at Seattle, where Jared Bednar picked up his 300th NHL victory. Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon had multi-point games for the Avalanche, which had lost three in a row and five of seven since starting the season with six straight wins. An 8-2 Wednesday win over the Ducks could truly get the good vibes rolling again.
7. Los Angeles Kings
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Previous Ranking: 5
Overall Record: 8-3-3
An eight-game point streak (6-0-2) came to an inglorious end for the Kings on Saturday when they dropped a 4-2 decision to visiting Philadelphia. Goalie Cam Talbot allowed four goals on 26 shots and was beaten by the No. 1 goalie he replaced, offseason Flyers acquisition Cal Petersen.
6. Florida Panthers
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Previous Ranking: 13
Overall Record: 10-4-1
Sam Reinhart's latest hot streak has coincided with a teamwide surge for the Panthers, who've won each of the five games in a stretch where Reinhart has produced at least two points each night. His 12 goals were one off the league lead heading into Wednesday night, and his torrid pace to this point would land him at 66 by season's end.
5. Vancouver Canucks
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Previous Ranking: 4
Overall Record: 12-3-1
It was good news and bad news along the blue line for the Canucks during a Sunday win at Montreal. Defenseman Filip Hronek ran his point streak to 10 games with his 13th assist in that stretch, which is tied for third in franchise history. Meanwhile, Carson Soucy left the game in the second period and will miss six to eight weeks with a lower-body injury.
4. Dallas Stars
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Previous Ranking: 7
Overall Record: 11-3-1
There aren't many teams built as well for the long haul as the Stars, and it's shown in the early going, including an OT defeat of Arizona on Tuesday that was Dallas' fourth straight win. The Stars are 10th in goals per game (3.40), sixth in goals-against average (2.53), and have eight players with at least 10 points through 15 games.
2. (Tie) Vegas Golden Knights
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Previous Ranking: 1
Overall Record: 12-3-1
There was bound to be a come-to-earth moment for the Golden Knights after their early-season dominance, and it appears to have arrived in the form of a scoring drought. Vegas was blanked 3-0 by Washington on Tuesday to drop to 1-3 in its last four games, with just three total goals in the losses. "We're getting the looks, for sure, we just got to score the goals," captain Mark Stone said.
2. (Tie) New York Rangers
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Previous Ranking: 3
Overall Record: 11-2-1
It's all about the streaks for the red-hot Rangers both collectively and individually. New York's shooting defeat of Columbus on Sunday was its 10th straight game with a point (9-0-1), and the two assists from Artemi Panarin stretched his season-opening point streak to 14 games.
1. Boston Bruins
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Previous Ranking: 2
Overall Record: 12-1-2
Another game. Another win. Another milestone for David Pastrnak. The man known as "Pasta" had a goal and two assists in Buffalo on Tuesday, marking his 53rd three-point game and 141st road goals, equaling Cam Neely for 11th and seventh in Boston history. He also is the 10th Bruin to compile 300 road points in a career.
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