In a week in which so many teams at or near the top of these rankings failed to impress, the Avalanche found a way to stand out from the pack. They went 4-0 last week, and they hung a touchdown on the scoreboard in three straight games. Colorado put an exclamation point on the week by taking down the Panthers in a thriller.
2You cannot get rolled by the Ottawa Senators and keep your top spot in the power rankings. It simply can't happen. The Bolts scored an impressive win over the Maple Leafs, but a 4-0 loss to Ottawa will ruin a lot of that goodwill.
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There are rumblings that Kevin Fiala might be on the trading block, and at first glance, it's easy to see why. Fiala has just four goals in 28 games, which is rather disappointing. That said, Fiala has scored on just 4.4% of his shots, which is six points lower than his career average. He also leads the Wild individual expected goals at five-on-five at 6.32.
4Goaltending has suddenly become an issue for the Maple Leafs. Since the start of December, Toronto has given up at least three goals in every game. The Leafs have the offensive skill to score their way out of trouble, but needing at least four goals to win every night is far from ideal.
5The Panthers had a tough schedule last week, so I won't hold their 1-1-1 record against them. Aleksander Barkov returned to the lineup in Florida's overtime loss against the Blues and notched a goal, but he has missed the two games since then. The most important thing for the Panthers right now is to get him back to full health.
6It's been hard to truly evaluate the Capitals because they've had to use patchwork lineups more often than they would like to this point, but that only makes the fact that they sit atop the Metropolitan Division all the more impressive.
7After a torrid start in the goal-scoring department, Chris Kreider has finally started to cool off. He has one goal in his last six games as his shooting percentage was regressed back to a normal level.
8One thing I can say for the Golden Knights is that they always play in entertaining games. Vegas is fifth in the NHL in expected goals for at five-on-five (60.14) and 29th in expected goals against at five-on-five (58.96). That leads to a lot of shootouts and a lot of overs hitting. That's good for the casual fan, but it's something that Peter DeBoer probably wants to clean up.
9The Hurricanes have been playing some middling hockey of late, but Sebastian Aho has not. Every time I look up, Aho is contributing to a Carolina goal. He is on a five-game point streak, but it's not just any point streak. Aho has at least two points in every game over that stretch, and he has 12 in his last five contests.
10Nathan Walker has never played more than eight games in any NHL season, but he had a moment he will remember forever last week. In his first game of the 2021-22 season, Walker recorded a hat trick in St. Louis' win over the Detroit Red Wings. Now at four goals in three games, Walker has quadrupled his career high in that category.
11Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano teamed up for one of the coolest goals in NHL history. Zegras essentially lobbed up an alley-oop from behind the net, and Milano slammed it home out of mid-air. Of course something that fun had to be immediately condemned by the likes of old school hockey types (looking at you, John Tortorella).
12I've been holding off on really shooting the Predators up these rankings because I've considered them a bubble playoff team for a while now. That may still be the case, but Nashville has now won five in a row and swept a four-game road trip in which they were without key players for several games. In the last month, the Preds are fifth in the NHL in expected goals share at 55.20%.
13There seems to be some frustration around the Bruins this season, and I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly why. The results haven't always been there, and the top line does carry too much of the offensive load. However, Boston is second in the league in expected goals share (56.12%). The Bruins are in a tough division, but they're not in any danger of missing the playoffs.
14The Flames' next three games have been postponed due to a large number of players being in COVID-19 protocol. Hopefully that allows them to get healthy in relatively short order because this has been an entertaining team, even if Calgary hasn't been at its best of late.
15The Oilers have now lost five games in a row, and Connor McDavid has had the audacity not to find the back of the net in the last four. Of course, there lies the problem with Edmonton. If McDavid, Draisaitl, or Hyman aren't scoring, the team is in some trouble because the depth isn't always reliable in that area.
16I'm going to have to apologize to Penguins fans everywhere. After I talked about how great Jake Guentzel has been this season, he was promptly placed on Injured Reserve. That's awful timing with Guentzel riding a 13-game point streak.
17Los Angeles has been getting phenomenal goaltending from Jonathan Quick of late. Just since Dec. 1, Quick has saved 4.52 goals above average, and he completely stonewalled the Wild in a 2-1 win. If he keeps that up, the Kings could hang around the playoff picture for quite a while.
18The Jets have recently gone with a top line that features Mark Scheifele in between Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor. To my surprise, that combo has yielded some poor results. Those three have played just over 100 five-on-five minutes together, and Winnipeg has controlled just 44.03% of the expected goals in those situations. They're outscoring opponents now, but I wouldn't expect that to be the case much longer if those numbers stay the same.
19Dallas has dropped three in a row, and it has some depth issues. The line of Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, and Joe Pavelski have been dominant for the Stars, but it has been an uphill battle for the team when those three are on the bench. That even includes Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Alexander Radulov, who are all on the wrong end of the expected goals numbers at five-on-five.
20Rookie forward Jonathan Dahlen looks like an incredibly promising piece for the Sharks. He has 14 points in 28 games, and it looks like those results should be sustainable. San Jose controls play with Dahlen on the ice, and he has generated 4.34 expected goals at five-on-five, which is fourth on the team.
21After rolling my eyes at the hiring of Bruce Boudreau, I was pied in the face by the Canucks. They are now 4-0-0 with Boudreau behind the bench, and that includes a win over the Hurricanes. Don't get me wrong, I maintain that Vancouver is still a bad hockey team, but Boudreau has clearly made an immediate impact on the club.
22A big reason the Blue Jackets are still in the playoff hunt at this point in the season is Oliver Bjorkstrand. He's scoring at just shy of a point per game pace, and he has been Columbus' best all-around player this year.
23Brady Tkachuk's post-bite hot streak continues. He had two points in a win over the Devils, and he scored a hat trick in a shutout win over the Lightning. If you think I'm going to stop tracking this any time soon, you're sorely mistaken.
24Just a couple of years ago, Dominik Kubalik looked like a player the Blackhawks could build around. He scored 30 goals in 68 games as a rookie, but Kubalik's performance has steadily gotten worse since then. He has five goals in 27 games this season, and Chicago is getting crushed when he is on the ice at five-on-five.
25Detroit lost all three of its games last week by wide margins, and it gave up at least five goals in each contest. Goaltenders Thomas Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic combined to allow 7.16 goals above average at five-on-five in that stretch.
26Philadelphia finally ended its losing streak at 11 games and got a couple of badly needed victories. However, that's about where the good news ends. One of the most concerning aspects of this Flyers season is defenseman Ivan Provorov. He hasn't recorded a point in the last six games, and his underlying numbers have been troubling to this point.
27Philipp Grubauer has taken a lot of justified heat this season, but the Kraken's recent struggles cannot be placed entirely on his shoulders. In the past two weeks, Seattle has controlled just 45.15% of the expected goals at five-on-five. That's a bigger issue than just goaltending.
28The Islanders are back on the winning track, but it's probably too little too late. The Isles do have quite a few games in hand over their divisional opponents, but they are still a handful of points behind a Flyers team that just went on its own lengthy losing streak.
29New Jersey has won just two of its last 10 games, and its playoff hopes are slipping by the day. Head coach Lindy Ruff's seat will only get hotter unless the Devils can find a way to halt this skid.
30The Canadiens were so close to scoring a win over last week's No. 1 team, the Lightning, but they let a 2-1 lead turn into a 3-2 loss in the final two weeks of the game. On top of that disappointment, Tyler Toffoli will miss significant time with a hand injury. It's hard to find any positives in Montreal these days.
31The Coyotes are having trouble lighting the lamp these days, and it's not just because they didn't pay the electric bill. No player has more than six goals so far this season, and the team nearly got locked out of its own arena for failure to pay the appropriate fees and taxes.
32It took a while, but the Sabres are back to where they started the season. Things have unraveled quickly in Buffalo, and the team has one win in its last 12 games. One small bright spot is that Kyle Okposo seems to be in the midst of a resurgent year. He has 19 points so far, which matches or exceeds his totals from the past two seasons.
