NHL Power Rankings: Islanders battling for top seed in East

20-6-2, 42 points: An important stretch coming up for the Capitals as their next 14 games will be against Eastern Conference opponents, half of them against divisional foes.

22-6-2, 46 points: After being held pointless in three straight games, Jamie Benn exploded for a season-high four-point night in a win over Carolina last week.

19-8-2, 40 points: Jonathan Quick is 7-0-1 in his last eight games, and has allowed just 13 goals in those contests.

18-8-5, 41 points: The Islanders are 7-0-2 against teams in their division, and have picked up at least a point in 10 straight games.

20-8-3, 43 points: The Canadiens had four regulations losses in their first 26 games. They have four regulation losses in their last five games.

16-8-6, 38 points: The Red Wings are 8-2-5 since Pavel Datsyuk returned to the lineup, and have picked up a point in each of their last 10 games. 

17-10-4, 38 points: Corey Crawford was named the NHL's first star of the week after going 3-0-0 with a 0.33 goals against average, .989 save percentage and two shutouts.

16-9-3, 35 points: The Bruins will play eight of their next 10 games at home, where they are 6-7-1 this season compared to 10-2-2 on the road.

18-9-4, 40 points: After starting the season on a 16-3-2 run, the Rangers are 2-6-2 in their last 10 games.

17-10-4, 38 points: The Blues have killed off 21 consecutive penalties, and have emerged as the league's top PK unit at 87.7 percent.

15-7-6, 36 points: The Wild are 4-0-2 in their last six games, which includes three shutout victories and a 2-1 win in Chicago.

15-10-5, 35 points: Despite sitting in the middle of the pack in goals per game (2.60), the Predators are the second-best puck possession team, controlling 54.7 percent of even-strength shot attempts.

15-10-5, 35 points: The Senators allowed 27 shots in the first period against Montreal over the weekend, which didn't help their league-worst average of 33.9 shots against per game.

15-10-3, 33 points: The Penguins have officially seen enough of Mike Johnston and have given the keys to Mike Sullivan, who GM Jim Rutherford said reminds him of Peter Laviolette.

14-13-3, 31 points: The Lightning are slowly trending in the right direction, winning three of their last five games and outshooting Washington by 16 in Saturday's 2-1 loss.

15-11-4, 34 points: The Devils haven't had back-to-back wins in a month, but they keep finding ways to grab points in losses.

14-12-4, 32 points: Jaromir Jagr scored his 731st career NHL goal on Thursday, which ties him with Marcel Dionne for fourth-most goals of all-time.

14-14-2, 30 points: Mathieu Perreault had an impressive four-point night in Thursday's win over Columbus, giving him six multipoint games on the season.

12-12-6, 30 points: After potting a goal against St. Louis last week, Claude Giroux has officially scored against each of the 29 teams he's faced in his career. 

14-14-1, 29 points: In his second game back from a fractured right fibula, Logan Couture will be out for roughly five games after undergoing surgery to repair "small arterial bleed." Tough blow for a team already trending in the wrong direction.

11-12-8, 30 points: Daniel Sedin is quietly ranked fifth in the NHL's scoring race with 33 points.

11-13-5, 27 points: The Ducks had four days to prepare for Carolina and still lost 5-1, which closed out their six-game homestand. 

13-15-2, 28 points: Taylor Hall has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his last four games, bumping his point total to 34, which ranks fourth among all players. He's also tied for the league lead in game-winning goals (5).

13-14-2, 28 points: After scoring just five goals in his first 24 games, Johnny Gaudreau has seven goals in his last five contests, guiding the Flames to five straight wins, each of which have been decided by one goal (three ending in regulation or shootout).

14-16-1, 29 points: Gabriel Landeskog had four goals in his first three games of the season. He has just three goals in the 25 games since then.

14-14-2, 27 points: The roller-coaster season continues for the Coyotes, who have only one win in the month of December.

12-15-3, 27 points: Rasmus Ristolainen became the first defenseman in Sabres history to net a hat trick in a single period during a loss to Calgary on Thursday.

10-13-5, 25 points: Jonathan Bernier is 3-0-1 with a 1.25 goals against average, .948 save percentage and three shutouts during his AHL conditioning stint.

11-17-3, 25 points: The Blue Jackets have one win in their last seven games, and are 0-1-2 since it was announced that Sergei Bobrovsky will miss the next three weeks with a lower body injury.