NHL Power Rankings: Predators and Blackhawks Pull Away

Things are looking up in the Eastern Conference after a successful 2014.  6 of the top 10 teams in our power rankings are from the East and their record against the Western Conference is greatly improved year-over-year.  Can the East remain competitive through 2015 and into the playoffs?

About these rankings:

Two seasons ago, I set out to eliminate the non-sense behind power rankings by building a power rankings model based on underlying statistics and their predictive ability. The rankings were built on points earned, special teams, even strength play and goaltending, so they were constantly in flux.

I'm still playing around with the model, but here is my best effort at predicting the standings and playoff pairings at the end of the season. One item of note - 38% of the game is luck, and I don't attempt to predict or model that 38%, and I don't plan to.

• Nashville and Chicago are well clear as the top two teams in the game right now.  Nashville has the NHL's best goaltending and is 4th at even strength.  If they straighten out the 19th-ranked power play, they will be frightening.  Chicago is 3rd in the league at evens and has had the 3rd-best goaltending.  Their weakness is on the PK.  Makes for an interesting stretch run and divisional playoff.

Western Conference Rankings

• Don't look now, but Winnipeg isn't going away.  The regression of Michael Frolik has been fun to watch, and Jacob Trouba looks like a steal of a draft pick.
• San Jose should start the climb back to the top of the pile any moment now, but Los Angeles - they aren't the team they used to be.  Their even strength dominance is has dried up.  Must be a lack of Penner.

Eastern Conference Rankings

• The Rangers, Pens, Canadiens, Wings and Lightning are essentially the same team right now, each with their own weakness except Detroit.  The Rangers and Canadiens are the weakest of the group at evens, the Lightning struggle on special teams and the Penguins penalty kill is a wreck.
• What in the world happened to the New Jersey Devils?  They're abysmal at evens and terrible on the power play.

Playoff Matchups:

Wild vs. Predators and Canucks vs. Jets - the series no one wants to see.