NHL Power Rankings Week 5: Rangers rise, Canucks are terrible

After a huge start to their season, fans have seen the Edmonton Oilers start to come down to earth a little bit. They simply weren’t going to continue their start. While Edmonton lost to the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs last week, the Oilers also got consecutive wins over the Islanders and Red Wings over the weekend. Cam Talbot has still been doing very well in net. They have enough elite talent to perhaps make the playoffs and be a great team in spite of having flaws. Edmonton needs to improve defensively, as the main difference defensively between last year and this year has been their goaltending.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are rolling now that they have their captain Sidney Crosby back. Crosby leads the NHL in goals with eight despite only playing in six games so far. He’s still the best player in the world, though Connor McDavid is quickly closing the gap. They lost ground in the power rankings because they had the audacity to lose, something that the top four teams haven’t been doing much of lately. While Pittsburgh won’t continue to get this level of production from Crosby, they’re a very good team. The Penguins need to improve their penalty kill if they want to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.