Weekly Power Rankings: The Capitals are on the rise; Bruins, Maple Leafs at the top

The Washington Capitals are starting to win again, while the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs occupy the top spots in this week's NHL Power Rankings.

In this week’s NHL Power Rankings the Washington Capitals are starting to make a climb, while the Boston Bruins maintain their hold on the top spot as they continue to lap the field.

Elsewhere, I still can not get over how bad the Anaheim Ducks have been, while the St. Louis blues continue to look like a team that is going to be stuck in neutral for a while.

We get into all of that and more in this weeks rankings.

Where does your team sit?

To this week’s NHL Power Rankings!

1. Boston Bruins. They have played 28 games and are on a 138 point pace. They have just four regulation losses. The next closest team to them in terms of point pace is New Jersey at 124 points. Neither team is going to continue those marks over 82 games, but it at least shows just how far ahead of everybody else Boston is at the moment. No real weaknesses here.

2. Toronto Maple Leafs. The goaltending remains the biggest shock here. I never — NEVER — expected Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov to be doing this. But can they sustain it? That is the ultimate question here.

3. Tampa Bay Lightning. I still think we take this team and what it has done over the past eight years for granted. Just so steady, so consistent, so dominant. Even more impressive this season is they are doing all of this winning while some of their best players (Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy specifically) are not even playing their best hockey right now. Still a scary team.

4. Vegas Golden Knights. Jack Eichel has been the player they wanted and needed him to be, but it is also a very balanced line up overall offensively. They are back.

5. New Jersey Devils. They have hit their first extended slump of the season. Not too much to be concerned about at the moment. Let’s see how quickly they snap out of it.

6. Carolina Hurricanes. Love the way they play, and Martin Necas’ breakout is a significant development, but I still feel like they are missing something in terms of finishers. I want to see them with a healthy Max Pacioretty.

7. Pittsburgh Penguins. Ever since they bumped Rickard Rakell to the top power play unit that group is rolling. Combined with their 5-on-5 play and their penalty kill and this remains a rock solid team. Just. Need. The. Goaltending. To. Be. There. In. The. Playoffs.

8. Dallas Stars. I would put them as one of my top Stanley Cup contenders in the Western Conference. I think this team can — and will — go pretty far.

9. Winnipeg Jets. Not only should Connor Hellebuyck be at the top of the Vezina discussion for top goalie in the league this season, he should also be in the MVP conversation. This team is not winning this many games if he is not playing at this sort of level. Great goaltending changes everything for teams. He is one of the best in the league.

10. Seattle Kraken. They have been very good this season despite continued problems in goal. If they could fix that they would be a very dangerous team in the Western Conference. But how do you fix that with what is available on the trade market? It has to be frustrating given how much they invested in the position when they built the original roster.