Power Rankings: Red Wings reaffirm their status among NHL's elite

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ESPN.com

It's a new year. Time to start fresh.

Boston and Chicago will have to start new winning streaks after two of the season's longest ended last week.

Down at the other end of the rankings, it's time the bottom-feeders cleared their decks and started dealing. The playoffs are a dream, no matter what those clubs resolve to change in the second half of the season.

The biggest change near the top of the Power Rankings acknowledges the Red Wings' smooth, disciplined and efficient execution of their system while sweeping the Blackhawks in a home-and-home series and dropping the Wild in a shootout last week. We shouldn't have doubted them.

As usual, you can comment on the Power Rankings here.

-- By Jim Wilkie; posted Jan. 5

2008-2009 Power Rankings: Week 11
	RK (PV)	TEAM	REC.	COMMENT
	1 (1)	Bruins	29-6-4	The Patriots are done, the Celtics are playing like mortals and the Red Sox are hibernating. So now is the time for the Bruins to finally reclaim their rightful place atop the Beantown sporting pantheon.
	2 (4)	Red Wings	26-7-5	Both indoors and outdoors, the Red Wings turned the Blackhawks upside down last week.
	3 (2)	Sharks	29-4-5	The Sharks are tied with the Capitals for the NHL's best winning percentage when scoring the first goal of the game (.826).
	4 (5)	Capitals	26-11-3	We're picking up on the drumbeat of the red-hot Caps, led by none other than Alexander Semin.
	5 (3)	Blackhawks	21-8-7	At least the Blackhawks can say they beat the Red Wings in number of All-Star Game starters this season.
	6 (9)	Flames	23-12-4	A shaky Miikka Kiprusoff gave Flames coach Mike Keenan a chance to dig out his Captain Hook act in Chicago, where he perfected it.
	7 (6)	Devils	23-12-3	Devils bench boss Brent Sutter coaches against his son, Brandon, for the first time Tuesday when New Jersey visits Carolina. "I don't know how I'm going to feel," Sutter told The (Newark) Star-Ledger. "I'm not sure I'm going to like it that much."
	8 (7)	Canadiens	22-10-6	We can think of at least 100 better ways to celebrate the Habs' centennial than by voting in Alexei Kovalev (just 28 points, including nine goals, in 38 games) and Mike Komisarek (16 games missed because of injury) as All-Star Game starters.
	9 (10)	Flyers	21-10-8	The Flyers continue to persevere despite a rash of injuries to their forwards.
	10 (11)	Canucks	21-15-5	Jason LaBarbera has done a fine job as the No. 1 goaltender since injuries felled Roberto Luongo and Curtis Sanford. But the skaters need to step up sooner; their new goalie is 0-5 in shootouts and the team is 1-5 in the tiebreaker.
	11 (13)	Rangers	23-14-3	Petr Prucha escaped the press box and has scored two of the Rangers' past six goals. But will he stick around, or is he being showcased as trade bait?
	12 (16)	Hurricanes	20-15-5	The Hurricanes' power play has a 22.39 percent success rate since Paul Maurice took over as coach, compared to 12.82 in 25 games under Peter Laviolette.
	13 (12)	Ducks	20-15-5	The Ducks are lucky Corey Perry was suspended for only four games for his elbow to the head of Flyers forward Claude Giroux.
	14 (14)	Sabres	19-15-5	The Sabres are 3-2 against the mighty Bruins this season.
	15 (8)	Penguins	19-16-4	Losing four in a row feels like a punch right to the Valabik.
	16 (18)	Coyotes	19-16-5	The Coyotes, ranked 28th with a man advantage (13.1 percent), haven't scored on their past 20 power plays.
	17 (19)	Wild	19-16-3	The Wild are the NHL's weakest road draw (15,613 average) -- and they won't become any hotter a ticket with Marian Gaborik out at least 10 weeks.
	18 (15)	Oilers	18-16-3	Proof of how absurd the NHL's injury disclosure guidelines are: The Oilers finally admit, five days and two games after the fact, that the "nose" injury suffered by Ales Hemsky against the Predators was really a concussion.
	19 (22)	Blue Jackets	18-17-4	Rookie goalie Steve Mason has the Blue Jackets one point out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
	20 (20)	Avalanche	19-19-1	After a valiant run, the Avalanche have begun an understandable slide without star forwards Paul Stastny and Joe Sakic. Come on, Tyler Arnason as a No. 1 center?
	21 (21)	Kings	16-16-6	Sign of the economic hard times to come in the NHL, and something all teams should emulate more frequently: During a 36-hour stretch last week, the Kings offered all remaining tickets for January games for $11.50 each.
	22 (17)	Predators	17-18-3	The Preds could use some good news, so here's hoping Steve Sullivan doesn't have any setbacks in his comeback attempt, targeted for Saturday against the Blackhawks.
	23 (23)	Stars	17-16-5	Unwanted by the Stars, Sean Avery has now been dumped by his girlfriend, according to the New York Post.
	24 (25)	Maple Leafs	16-17-6	Only Honest Ed's on Bloor and Bathurst could top the sale Leafs GM Brian Burke is trying to pull off.
	25 (24)	Panthers	17-16-6	Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun is upset after being yanked in two of his past three games. Coincidentally, the Panthers aren't very happy that the goalie making $5.5 million doesn't deserve to play as much as Craig Anderson, who costs the team roughly a tenth as much in salary.
	26 (26)	Lightning	11-18-10	Maybe some of them do care. Against Atlanta on Sunday, Lightning defenseman Andrej Meszaros played more than 25 minutes wearing a full face shield only a game after getting 64 stitches to repair damage from a puck shot by Carolina's Anton Babchuk.
	27 (28)	Senators	13-18-6	The Senators are tied with the Penguins for the league's worst winning percentage when leading after two periods (.615).
	28 (27)	Blues	15-21-3	Blues forward Alex Steen has 11 points in his past 14 games.
	29 (29)	Thrashers	13-22-5	"Our give-a-crap level is at zero," Thrashers coach John Anderson told the St. Petersburg Times after Tampa Bay beat Atlanta 4-1 on Sunday. "I've got to question whether anybody cares in that locker room right now. It's a joke."
	30 (30)	Islanders	12-24-4	The Isles are last in the league in attendance (13,307 per game), and not doing much to improve those numbers.