Elite Prospects Power Feelings: Don't get scared

This may look to you like a standard NHL “power rankings” but let me assure you, friend, that it is anything but. These rankings are based entirely on how I feel about a team’s chances of winning the Cup, meaning you can’t tell me I’m wrong because these are my feelings and feelings can’t be wrong.

Please enjoy the Power Feelings.

32. San Jose Sharks (Last time: 32)

I honestly thought coming into the season that there might be some room for them to not be the worst team in the league. Then they opened with nine straight losses and that feels pretty much like the end of that.

31. Chicago (LT: 29)

Is it good when, one year after you draft a franchise-changing forward first overall, he's like, "I'm sick of all this losing," three weeks into the season? Like, I don't know what Connor Bedard expected coming into this year but this was one of the most obvious lottery teams in the league. And that's what they should be aiming for based on the current roster and the pipeline.

30. Montreal Canadiens (LT: 27)

Saw a Montreal media guy after Tuesday's game (an 8-2 loss to Seattle) saying something like, "A bunch of people are about to try to give Martin St. Louis advice he doesn't want and won't listen to." And I'm not saying St. Louis was handed the best set of tools in the world or anything, but if I were over 200 games into my coaching career and I had under 80 wins, maybe I'd be looking for a little bit of counsel. Just a little.

29. Anaheim Ducks (LT: 30)

They're actually doing better than I thought they would, at least in terms of wins and losses, but I'm not gonna try to talk myself into this being any kind of a good team. They're still sellers at the end of the day, and that's fine (for now).

28. Philadelphia Flyers (LT: 21)

Seen a lot of comments lately about, like, "They look like the team everyone thought they would be last year." Funny how that kind of thing works out over a long enough timeline, like "90 games" instead of "82 games."

27. Buffalo Sabres (LT: 23)

It was really funny to see some of the reactions when they put together a three-game winning streak. "Wow, maybe they're figuring it out!" Come on, man. They're the Sabres. They haven't.

26. Columbus Blue Jackets (LT: 31)

Credit to 'em: A bunch of wins to start the season under the most miserable possible conditions. Do I think this is a good team? Not really. Do I think they can keep it up in what is a surprisingly competitive Metro? Definitely not. But this is a nice feel-good story for now, and you have to salute them. Hope I get the excuse to keep moving them up the ol' PFs.

25. Seattle Kraken (LT: 26)

By both points and points percentage, they are the eighth-best team in the West as I write this. Do I think they're better than Colorado, Edmonton, and Nashville over the last 70-something games of the season? You know I don't. I have a feeling their eighth-in-the-league shooting percentage just isn't gonna hold up.

24. St. Louis Blues (LT: 25)

Especially with the recent Robert Thomas injury, this feels like one of those "it's nice that they're still at .500" teams. I don't think it's gonna last, they're not playing particularly well, etc. The reason they were any good at all last year was the goaltending, and it hasn't really been in evidence beyond a few games this season. Tough to know what their competitive window looks like.

23. Utah ???? (LT: 24)

One regulation win, and it was opening night. Now they're on a four-game losing streak including blowing a third-period lead to the Sharks, and they've been outscored 37-29 for the year. I don't think this Olli Maatta trade is gonna turn it around, but I've been wrong before.

22. Calgary Flames (LT: 28)

They started out extremely hot, and recently they've cooled somewhat, dropping three in a row in regulation. They're still gonna be in "seller" mode a month or three from now, and even an early winning streak, while nice, should not encourage them to deviate from that plan.

21. Pittsburgh Penguins (LT: 16)

What a mess. Just awful. They're out of ideas, there's no help coming. What can you even say? The whole "keep the Big Three together to keep competing for the playoffs" was a not-good idea from the beginning, but I didn't think it was gonna be this bad this soon. Woof.

20. Detroit Red Wings (LT: 20)

Every time you think they might be putting something together, they lose some frustrating games. Tough to find traction, not a lot to like about the roster. Before last night's game against the Jets, they were .500 with a 102 PDO.

19. Ottawa Senators (LT: 19)

These guys love to flash a little bit of reason to believe in them and their ability to take a step, but the fact that the Leafs got off to a kind of slow start and the Bruins have people in Boston wondering what the hell went wrong over the summer, and the Sens still can't meaningfully distance themselves or break into the top three in the division? That seems bad.

18. Nashville Predators (LT: 9)

Obviously, there's plenty of reason to believe in a turnaround, but it's not telling fibs to say they certainly wanted to get off to a better start than 3-5-1. I don't think it's a disaster yet, but the potential is way higher than anyone should like — unless you hate the Predators, which I don't know if those people exist but they probably do.

17. New York Islanders (LT: 18)

Well, they're sub-.500 but a lot of their losses are close or to teams that are much better than them, and their underlying numbers are fantastic. Hard to know what to make of them except to say they don't have a ton of talent and they just added Matt Martin and Pierre Engvall to the roster, which the coach doesn't seem happy about.

16. Washington Capitals (LT: 22)

Credit where it's due: Nobody has a better xGF% as of Oct. 30 than these guys. And they're winning despite having a highly unproductive power play. One thing I wonder about: They're shooting 12.4 percent, which won't last, and the team sv% is .885. Can the latter come up as the former goes down? If that happens and the underlyings hold up, I dunno, they might be a playoff team again. I'm not holding my breath, though.

15. Los Angeles Kings (LT: 15)

All you can do, I think, is win games. This is a team where the regular season doesn't matter much because the problem post-rebuild (if we want to call it that) has always been the first round of the playoffs. I don't know if there's a team they'll match up well against or be favored in that kind of series, but that's also like 70 games from now, so just keep winning and let the chips fall where they may.

14. Boston Bruins (LT: 10)

I still have the feeling they're gonna figure it out. Too many good players, too good of a coach. But something seems really really off about them and I don't know what it is, which is acceptable to me because they don't know what it is either. The good news is they only have to pull ahead of the Senators, Red Wings, Sabres, and Canadiens to get back into the playoff convo, and history says that's not all that difficult to do. But also: It is getting real late real early for these guys.

13. Edmonton Oilers (LT: 1)

After last season, it was hard to imagine a worse start for this Oilers roster, but now we might be living in it. This start plus Connor McDavid being out for "only" two to three weeks (which is a good scenario here) is unreal.

12. Vancouver Canucks (LT: 11)

It's amazing that opening 4-1-3 doesn't get you first in the division by points percentage, but things are holding up reasonably well for them. This is about where I thought they'd be. Maybe a little better, but they gotta fix some things, for sure.

11. Tampa Bay Lightning (LT: 13)

Maybe their demise was a little exaggerated. I don't know that anyone was counting them out of the playoffs or anything, but it was a situation where you just had to be in kinda wait-and-see mode. So far, they look really good. Six different players north of a point per game, and the goaltending has been above league average. I don't wanna say "look out," but…

10. Toronto Maple Leafs (LT: 5)

At this point I kinda can't hold a slow start against these guys because they always seem to figure it out, but every year that margin for error feels like it grows a little bit. I don't know how Leafs fans watch this team 82 games a year.

9. Colorado Avalanche (LT: 3)

They lost four straight, then they won five straight, then they lost to Chicago. You tell me, man. I dunno.

8. Minnesota Wild (LT: 17)

What can you say? They're been dynamite. Very good underlying numbers, an MVP-style performance (through nine games) for Kirill Kaprizov, elite goaltending. Maybe they've figured something out here. I'm still gonna give it a few more months but it wouldn't surprise me at all now if they're one of the best teams in the West come the spring.

7. Carolina Hurricanes (LT: 2)

I remember a lot of people being really down on Carolina to start the summer in large part because they didn't change much about the offense and lost something on defense. When are those people gonna learn that there's just an extremely high floor on this team. Maybe that means they'll break through one of these days and make a serious postseason run. Maybe it doesn't. But they're just a strong team.

6. New Jersey Devils (LT: 12)

The big thing they were concerned about in the offseason, and justifiably so, was goaltending. Well, the goaltending is still not good. But the team is winning the xG battle pretty significantly and frankly the bad goaltending has only been limited to four or five games, which is probably too many but it's less than half of what they've played so, I guess you take it and hope the goalies get their heads on straight.

5. Winnipeg Jets (LT: 14)

I don't really think they're gonna be here at the end of the year or anything, but if Connor Hellebuyck keeps playing like this, there's an argument to be made.

4. New York Rangers (LT: 7)

Hard to be confident that the extent to which the bottom six has dominated is going to last, but everything else is working out really well. Really good team, not much else to say.

3. Dallas Stars (LT: 4)

Tough to start 7-2-0 and be sitting third in your own division, but here we are. Just a really, really good team that is going to face a meat grinder once they get into the divisional playoffs. I guess the only real weakness right now is that they don't have big offensive contributions from their top players yet and they've overly relied on their beyond-just-elite goaltending. Probably all evens out in the end.

2. Vegas Golden Knights (LT: 8)

All their star forwards look great. Almost all their star defensemen look great. Do they have depth problems? Sure. That's how they're designed. Would they like the goaltending to be more consistent? Sure. But that's hard to predict. I don't think they'll keep shooting 16 percent as a team but man they're running it up right now, and they have the star power to keep winning consistently.

1. Florida Panthers (LT: 6)

I guess these guys were champs for a reason. They look awesome, and they played a huge chunk of their season so far without their two best forwards. Can't do much better than that.