Central Division Power Rankings: Nashville Remains On Top
By Mark Harris
October has come and gone and the NHL is finally starting to take a tiny fraction of a shape now that November is upon us.
Almost every team in the NHL has 10 or more games under their belt (Florida only has nine) so we are starting to see glimpses of what teams are made of as we are about one-eighth of the way through this 2014-15 NHL regular season.
As of today, the mighty Central Division only has two top-10 teams in the NHL standings which may come as a surprise to many as the Central Division has been tabbed as the best division in the league.
Currently the Pacific Division has the most teams (four) inside the top-10 of the league standings.
But, that is enough talk about the ‘around the league’ standings, let us turn our attention to the Predators’ division.
Here are our weekly Central Division Power Rankings:
Previous: . Nashville Predat0rs. 1. team. 151. The Nashville Predators hold the number-one spot in our power rankings for <a href=. (7-2-2)
The St. Louis Blues may be one of the hottest teams in the NHL. The Blues have won four straight games, with all four-wins coming against very strong opponents; Anaheim, Dallas, Chicago, and Colorado. St. Louis’ defense and goalie duo in <a href=. (6-3-1). Previous: . St. Louis Blues. 2. team. 99
(7-3-0). Previous: . Minnesota Wild. 3. team. 98. The Minnesota Wild are also a Central Division team on an impressive win streak as they have won their past three contests. Goalie <a href=
The Winnipeg Jets started off the season 1-5-0 through their first six-games, since then they have posted an impressive record of 4-1-2. In their last two-games the Jets have shutout their opposition behind stellar play from both of their goalies <a href=. (6-5-1). Previous: . Winnipeg Jets. 4. team. 107
94. The Blackhawks found themselves in a questionable slump this past week. Chicago was shut out twice over the span of seven-days and also took a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs this past Saturday night. The Blackhawks’ number-one netminder <a href=. (6-5-1). Previous: . Chicago Blackhawks. 5. team
Dallas Stars. 6. team. 119. The Dallas Stars, with all their talent, just seem odd to hold the number-six spot in the power rankings; but their play as of late has not been up to par. Two of Dallas’ three losses this past week did come in overtime, but you add their loss to the New York Islanders the week prior to put their losing streak to four-games, they just haven’t been very impressive as of late. The goalie play in Dallas has definitely been the teams’ Achilles heel this season. <a href=. (4-3-4). Previous:
Previous: . Colorado Avalanche. 7. team. 103. The Colorado Avalanche sit at the bottom of our rankings for the second consecutive week. Colorado has simply looked bad this season. The Avalanche power play, goals allowed average, and goals per game average all are at the bottom of the league’s standings. The one bright spot for this hockey team has been their penalty-kill which is second in the NHL as they have killed off 92.5% of the power plays they have faced. Colorado finished fourth in the NHL last year with 245-goals scored at the end of the season averaging 2.99 goals per game. So far this season, granted it is still early, they are only scoring 2.4 goals per game, the 23rd worst average in the league.. (3-5-5)
Keep an eye out next Monday as we rank the Central Division yet again.