Power Rankin's (Week of 1/11/10)

In order to accommodate Philadelphia Phlyers phans - all of whom apparently believe that the national sports media in its entirety is biased toward Pittsburgh teams (more on "The Black & Gold Rule" later, I'm sure), I present an entirely objective ranking of the NHL's 30 teams - The Power Rankin's:

1) Buffalo
2) Chicago
3) Phoenix
4) New Jersey
5) Washington
6) Vancouver
7) San Jose
8) Nashville
9) Colorado
10) Calgary
11) Pittsburgh
12) Los Angeles
13) Boston
14) Detroit
15) Philadelphia
16) Minnesota
17) Dallas
18) Anaheim
19) Montreal
20) NY Rangers
21) Ottawa
22) St. Louis
23) Atlanta
24) Florida
25) NY Islanders
26) Tampa Bay
27) Edmonton
28) Toronto
29) Columbus
30) Carolina

This calculation is a weighted sum of each team's ranking in five categories:

1) Wins * Strength of Victory (30% of total index)
2) Losses / Strength of Loss (30% of total index)
3) 0.5 * OT-Shootout Losses / Strength of OT-Shootout Loss (10% of total index)
4) Goal Scoring Depth (15% of total index)
5) Goaltending Quality (15% of total index)

'Goal Scoring Depth' is a measure of each team's scoring capacity from the top of its lineup to the bottom. Teams with one or two dominant goal scoring forces will not be as highly ranked in this category as teams that are more balanced across their lineup. However, each team's total goals scored is also balanced by the league average of team goals, preventing "balanced" teams that have scored very few goals but evenly across a relatively large number of players from gaining undue benefit.

'Goaltending Quality' takes account of each teams goals allowed at even-strength, while shorthanded, and while on the power play. The number of shots each team faces is also included in order to normalize goals allowed.

Unlike other major media outlets rankings, the Power Rankin's are entirely void of personal bias (trust me, if they weren't, Philly would be forever mired in the 25-30 range on pure principle). Debate them all you like, but statistics just don't lie.