This week in the NHL, by Kevin Lindstrom

As we go into another week, there have been some movers and shakers, and some moved and shaken. The Devils and Islanders make the best positive moves up, and Philadelphia and Colorado fall the farthest. To a certain degree, that doesn't reflect the fact that Detroit fell quite a bit - almost back to earth. Now just six points ahead of [Bill]Your Dallas Stars![/Bill], the once invulnerable Supermen are now as fallible as the rest. Everyone do their evil laugh and rub your hands together. He he he.

This is the last set of rankings before the trade deadline. Will it matter? Will there be moves? Will the Avs signing Forsberg matter? Fun stuff, indeed. I'm not going to try to read the mist and see what trades might happen, so I'll go into a bit more detail about some of the teams below in the comments. For now, though, here are the rankings and the teams' accompanying stats. Take a look and see how your favorite team and teams you love to hate did, then see the comments section for a more detailed look at where the teams stand.

					Home			Away
No.	Team	Pts	G	W	L	OTL	W	L	OTL	+/-
1	Detroit Red Wings	89	64	21	7	2	21	10	3	0
2	**Dallas Stars**	83	66	20	10	2	19	12	3	2
3	New Jersey Devils	79	63	21	11	1	16	10	4	6
4	Ottawa Senators	78	63	19	12	3	17	9	3	-2
5	Pittsburgh Penguins	77	63	18	10	5	17	11	2	0
6	Anaheim Ducks	79	66	20	8	4	16	15	3	4
7	Montreal Canadiens	75	63	14	12	5	19	9	4	0
8	San Jose Sharks	74	62	14	13	5	19	8	3	-5
9	Minnesota Wild	73	62	18	10	3	16	13	2	-3
10	Calgary Flames	74	63	16	10	7	17	12	1	5
11	Vancouver Canucks	72	62	17	11	3	15	11	5	5
12	Boston Bruins	70	61	14	12	3	18	11	3	2
13	Buffalo Sabres	69	63	16	10	4	14	14	5	-1
14	NY Rangers	72	64	20	13	0	12	11	8	4
15	Nashville Predators	72	64	20	10	4	12	14	4	-2
16	Philadelphia Flyers	69	63	13	12	6	18	13	1	-8
17	Phoenix Coyotes	69	63	14	14	3	18	12	2	0
18	Colorado Avalanche	68	63	18	11	2	13	15	4	-7
19	NY Islanders	67	63	17	12	3	14	14	5	6
20	St. Louis Blues	66	62	18	10	5	10	14	5	2
21	Carolina Hurricanes	69	65	17	11	3	15	17	2	-1
22	Columbus Blue Jackets	67	64	16	9	6	13	17	3	-3
23	Chicago Blackhawks	64	62	15	13	1	14	14	5	1
24	Washington Capitals	64	63	15	13	3	13	14	5	-3
25	Florida Panthers	63	65	12	12	6	16	18	1	-2
26	Toronto Maple Leafs	63	64	16	12	5	11	16	4	0
27	Atlanta Thrashers	62	63	16	14	2	13	16	2	0
28	Edmonton Oilers	61	63	16	14	1	12	16	4	0
29	Tampa Bay Lightning	57	62	15	15	2	10	15	5	0
30	Los Angeles Kings	56	64	14	17	2	12	17	2	0

Comments

Let's start at the bottom for once. Interesting to see so little change between 26-30. Remember, the last time we did these rankings, it was February 11 - two weeks ago. Clearly, that is the group that is in need of The Fork. If they aren't planning for the future, someone isn't paying attention.

The next group are the ones who have a fighting chance to make the playoffs, but surely need help. From the Caps to the Islanders, you have teams within striking distance of the playoffs even though they are in slots 19-24 in the rankings, with the Isles the ones making the most of their current run of play.

This next group has two of the farthest to fall - will they fall all the way out of the playoffs? Philadelphia and Colorado are not getting the kind of results that scream, "Playoffs - here we come!" This is probably the group with the most activity as teams fight to get into the playoffs.

Then we get into the meat of the NHL - the top 12 spots. Slots six through twelve have some interesting stories. Anaheim almost doesn't deserve to be in this group as they are on a streak barely hotter than Dallas. But they need a little more to join the upper echelon. Calgary and Vancouver have both made strong moves upward. San Jose and Minnesota are the teams in this group that tripped a bit.

I'm not sure if Pittsburgh should be in this group or the one above it..... And based on recent form, you could make an argument that Anaheim should be above the Penguins. But as I said before, these are in large part overall rankings, not week by week flights of fancy. If both teams continue their trends, the Ducks will pass Pittsburgh by the time we meet again.

The top four spots belong to the red hot Devils, the really red hot Stars, the struggling Senators and of course those pesky Red Wings. How much longer will Ottawa stay with the big dogs? Hard to say. The line between this group and the one below it is a bit thin and right now, they are not keeping pace.

So which teams are going to pull the trigger? I don't know, but I do know that Colorado (3-5-2) and Philadelphia (1-7-2) have significant slides to recover from. San Jose and Detroit have been struggling of late as well. None of these three are clubs that put up with poor play well, so they are going to do something. The bubble teams probably want a little somethin-somethin' to make a good push, as well.

The teams to watch, though, are Dallas, Anaheim and Jersey - teams playing well with lots of momentum. If they can do something to keep that momentum going forward, they could be tough to catch. Under the right circumstances, any of the three might be able to catch the Red Wings unless they right their ship soon.

Not to complicate things too much, but remember this: Lots of teams have reasons to make moves, but not that many teams are in the sellers market, so there is a risk of overpaying.

So with all that said, let's sit back and watch and see what unfolds.