Power Ranking Breakdown After Week One
By Evan Mead
The first week of the season is officially over. With that, the NHL, SportsNet, Bleacher Report and more, are starting to release power rankings for the season. However, is where they have the Knights accurate?
The Vegas Golden Knights are now three games into their season. After starting the season off with a win against the Seattle Kraken, they’ve gone on too lose two straight against the Los Angeles Kings, and St. Louis Blues. So with that concluding the first week of the season, there are power rankings being released.
The Vegas Knights have quite frankly, not performed to expectation, but does that put them outside of the top 10 teams? If websites still have them in the top 10, is that generous? We’ll let’s brake down some of the websites rankings.
The NHL released their rankings through the first week, and it’s safe to say that they’ve fallen. According to the prompt, the NHL had the Knights as the third best team in hockey prior to the start of the season. At this point in time however, the Knights have fallen to 11 after starting 1-2-0. So what teams do they have ahead of the Knights?
Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, Washington Capitals, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis. Blues.
Thoughts: Fair.
Bleacher Report released their rankings, but there was a much bigger slide. Bleacher Report originally had the Knights at eight, but are now currently ranked as their 16th best team in the NHL. After falling eight spots and being ranked as the middle team, they are going to have to find their way back up into the top 10. So who does Bleacher Report have ahead of the Knights?
Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes, St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings, Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers.
Thoughts: Harsh.
Just like Bleacher Report and NHL, Sports Illustrated has officially released their power rankings. After a disappointing week one for the Knights, some websites have had them fall into the bottom half, some still have them in the top 10, and some haven’t had them move hardly at all. Sports Illustrated however, keeps them in the top 10. So just like I stated with the other two websites, who does Sports Illustrated have ahead of them?
Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins.
Thoughts: Generous.
SportsNet unlike the other websites, didn’t give their original position prior to the start of the season. Although they didn’t release the Knights original position in their power rankings, it’s fair to say that they thought very highly of the Knights prior to the season. With injuries taking into account, and their record, where they have the Knights is fair.
Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders
Thoughts: Fair.