In this week’s edition of the PHT Power Rankings the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues climb to the top spot thanks to their current eight-game winning streak.
That streak has them running away with the top spot in the Central Division and Western Conference, while they also enter the week just one point back of the Washington Capitals in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy.
They will not need a great second half just to make the playoffs this season. They have already put themselves in position to not only return, but also make another run at the Stanley Cup.
Also this week the New York Islanders and Colorado Avalanche hit their first slides of the year, the Philadelphia Flyers are back on the good side of their streakiness, and the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers continue to trend in the wrong direction.
To the rankings!
1. St. Louis Blues. The defending champs just keep getting better.
2. Washington Capitals. Before John Carlson this season, you have to go back to the 1991-92 season for the most recent time a defenseman had at least 50 points through his team’s first 40 games of the season (Phil Housley and Brian Leetch both accomplished it that season).
3. Pittsburgh Penguins. They are one of the best teams in the league and are going to be getting Sidney Crosby back very soon.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs. They waited too long to make that coaching change. They are different, better and more dangerous team under Sheldon Keefe.
5. Boston Bruins. Their overtime and shootout luck has been lousy lately, but they do have at least a point in seven consecutive games (4-0-3 record).
6. Philadelphia Flyers. The streakiest, most unpredictable team in hockey is back on the good side of things. They are capable of a 10-game winning streak or a 10-game losing streak at any time, and neither one would -- or should -- surprise anyone.
7. Dallas Stars. With this defense and goaltending they are going to be a very tough out in the playoffs.
8. New York Islanders. They have won just two of their past six games and given up 26 goals during that stretch. This is their first slump of the season. Nothing to be alarmed about. They are fine.
9. Colorado Avalanche. Like the Islanders, the Avalanche have hit a little bit of a slump the past two weeks and slid just a bit. The type of thing that happens over the course of an 82-game season. Also like the Islanders, they are fine.
10. Carolina Hurricanes. The Dougie Hamilton Norris Trophy campaign needs a bigger PR department.
11. Tampa Bay Lightning. Do not give up on the Lightning just yet. This sleeping giant is starting to wake up.
12. Vegas Golden Knights. Max Pacioretty is playing some of the best hockey of his career and the Golden Knights are starting to rapidly climb the standings.
13 Florida Panthers. Jonathan Huberdeau has three four-point games in the past two weeks and is climbing the point leaderboard.
14. Vancouver Canucks. Jacob Markstrom has solidified their goaltending spot, but what is it going to cost to keep him?
15. Columbus Blue Jackets. A 10-game point streak is keeping them in it. That lost point against Chicago might hurt, though.
16. Minnesota Wild. That slow start where Bruce Boudreau’s job seemed to be in question is a distant memory right now.
17. Arizona Coyotes. They are still in the thick of the Pacific Division race but are cooling off fast.
18. Nashville Predators. An ugly weekend took some of the steam out of their recent strong play. Still, they are only a couple of points out of a playoff spot and have multiple games in hand on every team ahead of them.
19. New York Rangers. They may not be a playoff team just yet, but Artemi Panarin is doing his best to drag them to contention.
20. Calgary Flames. Since that 10-game point streak came to an end they have won just two of the next seven. Before that 10-game point streak they had lost six in a row.
21. Chicago Blackhawks. Sunday’s shootout win in Columbus was just the second for Robin Lehner since the start of the 2015-16 season. The shootout is the Achilles heel for one of the NHL’s best goalies.
22. Montreal Canadiens. Carey Price leads the league in games and minutes played, but he hasn’t been particularly sharp. That’s a big problem for the Canadiens.
23. Winnipeg Jets. The concern here was always what happens when Connor Hellebuyck slows down even a little. That has happened over the past couple of weeks and the results have not been pretty.
24. Buffalo Sabres. They were 8-1-1 after 10 games. They are 9-15-6 in 31 games since. Now they are without Jeff Skinner for the next 3-4 weeks.
25. Edmonton Oilers. We have all seen this movie enough times to know how it ends.
26. Ottawa Senators. D.J. Smith is getting more out of this roster than I thought he would.
27. Los Angeles Kings. There is nothing wrong with the way they play, they just do not have enough talent to make it matter. Combine that with continued decline of Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick and things get bleak really fast here.
28. Anaheim Ducks. They simply have zero offense, and none of the young players on the roster have really taken a big step forward yet to help fix that.
29. New Jersey Devils. Jack Hughes added another career first over the weekend by scoring his first career overtime goal.
30. San Jose Sharks. Timo Meier’s hat trick came at the perfect time for him and the Sharks, but this team is still in a LOT of trouble. They are 2-10 in their past 12 games and are going to need an insane second half just to make the playoffs. Are they capable of that?
31. Detroit Red Wings. Still on track to be one of the worst teams of the salary cap era.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.