In Midst Of Their Winning Streak The Rangers Soar Through Power Rankings
By Matt Josephs
The Rangers started off the 2011-2012 season on a bad note to say the least. The Rangers were plagued by too many penalties taken, and not enough puck possession. All of the top writers and the rest of the media were almost ready to count them out almost of the entire playoff picture calling them a “bubble team” and such. Well the Rangers have certainly fought back in the standings figuring out how to play without Marc Staal, and the media certainly has taken notice. Follow me after the jump to see exactly how much the Rangers have improved in the power rankings.
I’m going to say this as a little disclaimer that power rankings aren’t the real measure of a team and everything should be taken with a grain of salt. I only look at them to see how the writers feel the teams fit within the rest of the league regardless of the standings. That’s another thing too that the team with the best record in the league might not be atop the power rankings and a team on a hot streak might be near the top of the rankings.
The real reason why I post this is to show just how quickly people’s opinions of the Rangers have changed in just one week. It’s almost like they did a complete one-eighty in the eyes of the media. Below is a list of this weeks power rankings of the Rangers according to different news sites.
msn.foxsports.com NHL Power Rankings- Jon Rosen. Last week the Rangers were ranked 10th in the league and now are ranked 5th. At one point the Blueshirts ranked 23rd.
ESPN.com Power Rankings- Scott Burnside. Last week the Rangers were ranked 13th and now are ranked 3rd. At one point the Blueshirts ranked 27th.
cbssports.com Power Rankings- Adam Gretz. Last week the Rangers were ranked 13th and now are ranked 8th.
nhl.com Power Rankings- Dave Lozo. Last week the Rangers were ranked 11th and now are ranked 4th.
TSN.com Power Rankings- Scott Cullen. Last week the Rangers were ranked 5th and now are ranked 1st.
Overall I wasn’t terribly surprised by these small samples of rankings for the Rangers. The only one’s that surprised me was Scott Cullen having them atop the league, and Adam Gretz having them at 8th. If I were to judge anyone’s ranking of the Rangers I would say anywhere between 3rd and 6th is an acceptable ranking for this week.
But what really got me was the fact ESPN had them at 27th at one point this season. One of the faults of the power rankings system is how it almost completely ranks your team based on how they fare that one week and do not take the whole season into account. But that also ranks teams higher (Like the Rangers in this case) if they are on a big winning streak or have a good record throughout the week. That’s why the power rankings system is faulty. Are the Rangers really as bad as teams like the Islanders and Bluejackets? No. Did they play as bad them at one point in the season? Yes, they absolutely did.
I have to say though I am shocked to see the media be not too critical of the Rangers lately in general. I guess you can’t be critical of a team if they are winning games and in the middle of a winning streak, and the power rankings reflect that. But in the end it doesn’t matter what the media thinks about your team in the power rankings, it’s about how your team finishes in the standings. As long as you have a playoff spot at the end of the season that’s all that matters anyway.