The SBNation NHL hub has released their power rankings for this week. Note that there were no power rankings last week.
As you might expect, or at least what has been the case this year, the New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils are warming the basement while the Rangers climb as high as they can.
New York Islanders: The Islanders, once again, come in 15th in the East. They received votes of 15th place from every panelist. Still without Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo, the Islanders haven't been able to find a groove. Their 6-18-6 record is good for 18 points, lowest in the NHL. Rick DiPietro is sitting out thanks to a knee injury, which should worry Islanders fans. Even if this particular injury isn't serious, it's not good that his knee is giving him any kind of trouble.
The Islanders weren't expect to be a playoff team this year, although after their hot start some people thought that they might have been able to sneak in as an 8th seed. The ship that carried that line of thought has long since sailed.
The New Jersey Devils: In my opinion the Devils are in worse shape than the Islanders. The Devils come in 14th place with all but one (Ryan Classic voted them 13th). Personally, the Devils record of 9-21-2 for 20 points, is worse than the Islanders. The Islanders are only two points behind them with two games in hand. Still, they're 14th according to the balloters.
The Devils are having the same issues as two weeks ago. They can't find their scoring one game, and then when they do find it their defense or goaltending lets them down. It's even gotten to the point where there are rumors as to wether or not the New Jersey Devils will look to trade Martin Brodeur. The Devils leading scorer is Patrik Elias, and their leading goal scorer is Jason Arnott. Notice something missing? A $100 million man perhaps? So, with that in mind, it's not going well in Jersey either.
The New York Rangers: The Rangers lead the pack again, coming in seventh this week. They were voted as high as sixth and as low as eight from the panel. Their 20-14-1 record is good for 41 points, and despite a 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, they outscored the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins 11-1, before beating the Phoenix Coyotes in a shootout.
Henrik Lundqvist is back to his old dominating self, Derek Stepan just keeps impressing and Dan Girardi continues his upwards climb. The best part about the Rangers current success? They're doing it with Marian Gaborik off his game (he's still at a point-per-game pace, but if you watch him play you can see he's not "on").