This week, Buffalo's surge begins to appear while San Jose's return to the top of the Pacific coincides with a rise here.
The Power Ranking Rating is arrived at through a formula which includes the teams' adjusted points per game (regulation wins count for two while games going to overtime, regardless of outcome, count for one point) and Score-Adjusted Fenwick. The two are weighted, giving strong preference to Score-Adjusted Fenwick, while also factoring in how successful a team has been at winning games in 60 minutes.
At the end is each team's magic number - the number of games they must win to clinch a playoff berth - according to playoffstatus.com.
Here we go:
Eastern Conference
| This Week | Last Week |
Rationale |
Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 | 1 | The Penguins are going to have to wait until the summer to fil their need for a backup goalie. (Clinched) | 1.040 |
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2 | 2 | New York realizes how important it is to win the Atlantic, if for no other reason than avoiding the Flyers in the first round. (Clinched) | 1.032 |
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3 | 3 | The Flyers are going to be without Ilya Bryzgalov, who has a bone chip in his foot. But it's supposedly not serious. (Clinched) | 0.998 |
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4 |
4 | Boston is creating a mock-80s sitcom revolving around their mascot. The preview looks amazing. (Magic Number - 1) | 0.954 |
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5 |
5 | The Senators, despite having a very good year, can't stop marveling at former-goalie Brian Elliott. (Magic Number - 4) | 0.867 |
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6 |
6 | Florida offered Jason Garrison $2.5 million, but he rejected it. Is he worth $4 million per? He thinks so. (Magic Number - 3) | 0.864 |
 Devils_medium.png" class="photo" alt="Devils_medium" /> |
7 |
8 | The Devils are debating whether they should give up their 1st round pick as part of their Kovalchuk punishment this year. (Magic Number - 2) | 0.845 |
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8 |
7 | Washington came out flat against Buffalo in a battle for 8th place, losing 5-1. (Tragic Number - 5) | 0.838 |
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9 |
11 | The Sabres have come all the way back and are now in control of their own playoff destiny. (Magic Number - 5) | 0.800 |
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10 |
9 | Winnipeg is just the latest team struggling to understand why Randy Jones continues to get ice time. (Tragic Number - 3) | 0.790 |
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11 |
10 | The Hurricanes need Jeff Skinner to stay on the ice and out of the box. (Tragic Number - 1) | 0.769 |
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12 |
12 |
Tampa Bay won the J.T. Brown sweepstakes, but he's going to be a free agent again next summer. (Tragic Number - 2) | 0.739 |
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13 |
13 |
The Maple Leafs appear to already have checked out, which makes sense since they're eliminated. (Eliminated) | 0.698 |
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14 | 14 | New York is taking an early look at who they could target in the draft. Can't blame them. (Eliminated) | 0.692 |
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15 | 15 | The Canadiens have a 90% chance of getting a top-3 pick this year. What are they going to do with it? (Eliminated) | 0.663 |
Western Conference
| This Week | Last Week |
Rationale |
Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 | 1 | The Blues no longer have a spot for B.J. Crombeen. Looking at his fall. (Clinched) | 1.149 |
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2 | 2 | Detroit has a truly amazing player in Pavel Datsyuk. Even his interviews are fantastic. (Clinched) | 1.054 |
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3 |
3 | The Canucks are asking their fans not to riot. This is both good and sad. (Clinched) | 1.033 |
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4 |
4 | Chicago lost Duncan Keith for 5 games as a result of his elbow to the head of Daniel Sedin. (Magic Number - 2) | 0.960 |
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5 |
7 | The Sharks are going from out of the playoffs to division leaders after what seems like each game. (Magic Number - 4) |
0.896 |
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6 |
5 | Nashville is benefiting from Maritn Erat's great, possibly even career, year. (Clinched) | 0.887 |
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7 |
6 | The Kings still have a difficult path ahead of themselves. (Magic Number - 5) | 0.884 |
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8 |
8 |
Dallas doesn't miss Nicklas Grossmann, arguing that they have actually improved since trading him. (Magic Number - 4) | 0.843 |
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9 |
9 | The Coyotes are getting Shane Doan back for the final stretch of games. (Magic Number - 5) | 0.823 |
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10 |
10 |
Calgary is going to use the rest of this season as a snapshot of their recent, poor history. (Tragic Number - 4) | 0.810 |
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11 |
11 |
The Avalanche have retained their GM and their coach for next season. (Tragic Number - 4) | 0.788 |
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12 |
12 |
Anaheim is asking whether Teemu Selanne will play one more year. Teemu Selanne should play one more year. (Tragic Number - 1) | 0.736 |
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13 |
13 |
The Oilers lost Taylor Hall to shoulder surgery, an injury he has had for years. (Eliminated) | 0.665 |
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14 |
14 |
Minnesota is looking at a high draft pick again. (Eliminated) | 0.598 |
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15 | 15 | The Blue Jackets finally signed a goalie! Shawn Hunwick went from Michigan to backup NHL goalie the same day. (Eliminated) | 0.503 |