NHL Power Rankings - California Is The Place To Be

California teams are so good that if two expansion teams were thrown down in San Francisco and San Diego, I'd expect they'd immediately climb into the top 10 of the Power Rankings. Meanwhile, Alberta hockey is so bad and has been for so long, it seems like Alberta is to the NHL as Ohio was to the NFL for 15 years.

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A few interesting notes:

• Tampa Bay has become a real team and the Steve Stamkos should fix the power play to push the Lightning into the top 10. Martin St. Louis' point per game and .5 goals per game at age 38 is one of the most remarkable stories the NHL has seen in a long time. He should be on the Sochi roster.
• The Dallas Stars have finally fixed their even strength play, but their penalty kill is bad and has been the case but for a brief Richard Bachman hot streak - if Kari Lehtonen isn't in goal, the Stars are in trouble.
• The Florida Panthers are still stuck in Dale Tallon's "rebuild with draft picks except for gaudy contracts" phase, but should be able to cash in at the trade deadline with Marcel Goc, Tom Gilbert, Mike Weaver, Scott Gomez and Brad Boyes. They'll be younger and filled with more draft picks next season, which means they'll probably be worse.
• The bottom three teams are really, really bad. The lone bright spot for any of the Oilers, Flames or Sabres is the goaltending of Ryan Miller. In any other year, the Sabres would be able to trade him for a great return, but what team both needs him and can afford him?

The Western Conference

• Fans of hockey in the South should be thankful for fans of hockey in the Canadian interior. It's their blind devotion to bad hockey teams that fuels revenue sharing.
• The trade deadline in the Western Conference might be incredible boring. The playoffs might be set, save for seeding, by the time the deadline rolls around. Western buyers will be limited.

The Eastern Conference

• Not to sound like a broken record, but Pittsburgh has a goaltending problem. Marc-Andre Fleury continues to drastically underperform and unless Tomas Vokoun returns to save the Pens, they're going to have to trade for a goaltender at the deadline. There are other holes to fill so Ryan Miller will cost too much, but I wonder if Pittsburgh would gamble on Tim Thomas?
• Speaking of goaltending issues - except for goaltending, the Islanders are better than Toronto and on par with Washington and Montreal. Why hasn't Garth Snow traded for a goaltender like Miller or even Devan Dubnyk? Maybe he didn't have a bad enough contract that the Oilers pro scouts desperately wanted, so Dubnyk might never have been in play, but Snow has essentially wasted the entire season on Evgeni Nabokov.

Stanley Cup Playoff Matchups