NHL Power Rankings: Tim Thomas, Bruins reign supreme

Tarik El-Bashir assesses the top teams in the National Hockey League this week (Jan. 20). Records are through Thursday’s games.

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1 (1 last week): Boston Bruins; 30-13-1

Although the defending champs are 2-2-0 in their last four games, they rank second in goals against per game (2.00), first in goals for (3.54) and, thus, still are the team to beat. Tim Thomas and the B’s close out the month against the Rangers, Flyers, Capitals and Senators. Whew.

Chris O'Meara / AP

2 (4 last week): Detroit Red Wings; 31-15-1

They’ve won five in a row, sit atop the NHL standings and Pavel Datsyuk is playing like an MVP. Datsyuk has 13 points in the past nine games and a team-best 51 this season. On Monday, the Red Wings host St. Louis in a potential showdown for first place in the Western Conference at Joe Louis Arena, where they’ve won 15 in a row.

Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

3 (3 last week): New York Rangers; 29-12-4

After Thursday’s 4-1 defeat on home ice to the Penguins, they dropped to 2-3-0 in their last five, a stretch that also includes lopsided losses to Ottawa and Montreal. Henrik Lundqvist and Co. need to bounce back Saturday in Boston if they hope to remain atop the Eastern Conference standings.

Graham Hughes / AP

4 (7 last week): St. Louis Blues; 28-12-6

In a span of 10 weeks, Coach Ken Hitchcock has turned the Blues into bona fide contenders. They’re 7-0-1 this month and only a point behind the Red Wings in the Central Division after goalie Jaroslav Halak pitched back-to-back 1-0 victories over Dallas and Edmonton. Halak has three shutouts in four games and is 10-0-3 in his last 13 starts.

Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images

5 (6 last week): Chicago Blackhawks; 28-12-6

After opening 2012 with three consecutive losses, the ’Hawks are 4-0-2 in their last six games. MVP candidate Jonathan Toews scored twice in Wednesday’s 6-2 win over Buffalo, giving him 26 goals (second in the NHL behind Steven Stamkos’s 31) and 41 points in his past 36 games.

Nam Y. Huh / AP

6 (2 last week): Vancouver Canucks; 28-15-4

The Northwest Division leaders opened a six-game homestand this week with losses to Anaheim and Los Angeles (in a shootout). And with San Jose, Chicago and Detroit scheduled to make visits in the coming 13 days, this won’t be a staycation. The Daniel and Henrik Sedin-led power play still leads the NHL at 23.8 percent.

Rich Lam / Getty Images

7 (9 last week) Ottawa Senators; 27-16-6

Joining Ken Hitchcock as a coach of the year candidate has to be Paul MacLean, whose team is 8-1-1 in 2012. Center Kyle Turris has four goals, nine assists and a plus-minus rating of plus-13 since the surging Senators acquired the 22-year-old from Phoenix on Dec. 17. In the 16 games since his arrival, Ottawa is 12-2-2.

Claus Andersen / Getty Images

$After suffering setbacks against Chicago and Ottawa this week, the Sharks find themselves clinging to a one-point lead over Los Angeles in the Pacific Division. With fifth-leading scorer Ryane Clowe (facial fracture) joining Martin Havlat (hamstring surgery) on injured reserve, they’re going to need more from captain Joe Thornton, who has one point in the last five games.$

8 (8 last week): San Jose Sharks; 26-13-5

After suffering setbacks against Chicago and Ottawa this week, the Sharks find themselves clinging to a one-point lead over Los Angeles in the Pacific Division. With fifth-leading scorer Ryane Clowe (facial fracture) joining Martin Havlat (hamstring surgery) on injured reserve, they’re going to need more from captain Joe Thornton, who has one point in the last five games.

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

9 (10 last week): Nashville; 27-16-4

Since Dec. 28, the team with the league’s lowest payroll has defied expectations, winning 11 of 13 games and vaulting into sixth place in the Western Conference. Goalie Pekka Rinne has won his last six starts, yielding a total of eight goals in that span.

Henny Ray Abrams / AP

10 (5 last week): Philadelphia Flyers; 27-14-4

They dropped two of their past three, including Thursday’s unsightly 4-1 loss to the Islanders, New York’s first win on Broad Street in 14 games. Leading scorer Claude Giroux hasn’t scored since the Winter Classic and has two goals in his last 15 games.

Mike Strasinger / AP

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

epa03708924 Franziska (C) wears a helmet and carries a shield during the recreation of The Battle of the Teutoburg Museum in Bramsche, Germany, 20 May 2013. The everyday life of Romans and the Germanic people is depicted at Museum Park Kalkriese during the Romans and Germanic people days. EPA/Friso Gentsch

Photos of the day

Battle of Teutoburg Forest reenactment, Mars Curiosity rover drilling, massive tornado strikes Moore, Oklahoma and more.

A Burrowing owl tries to perch on a protective rope in a public park in Cooper City, Fla. Monday, May 20, 2013 as rain falls. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Animal views

Fun and fascinating creatures around the world.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 20: The Herndon Monument Climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The plebes climb to the top of the lard-covered 21 foot high monument and remove the 'dixie cup' hat at the top replacing it with an upperclassman's hat. After completing this, the freshmen are called 'fourth class midshipmen.' This class completed the task in 1 hour 32 minutes and 43 seconds. The hat was placed by Patrick Lien from Orlando. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The Herndon Climb

The Herndon Monument climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy.

This combination of Associated Press photos shows left, a neighborhood in Moore, Okla., in ruins on Tuesday, May 4, 1999, after a tornado flattened many houses and buildings in central Oklahoma, and right, flattened houses in Moore on Monday, May 20, 2013. Monday's powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999. (AP Photo)

Okla. tornado loosely followed path of 1999 twister

Monday’s powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the area in May 1999.

Lea Bessinger salvages a picture of Jesus as she and her son Josh Bessinger sort through the rubble of the elder Bessinger's tornado-ravaged home Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening an entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tornado near Oklahoma City causes more damage

Rescue workers are searching for survivors after a twister carved a long path of destruction in a suburb of Oklahoma City. It was part of the...

FILE - In this undated publicity file photo, members of the Doors, from left, John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison, pose for a portrait. Manzarek, the keyboardist who was a founding member of The Doors, has died at 74. Publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald says in a news release that Manzarek died Monday, May 20, 2013, at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family. (AP Photo, File)

Ray Manzarek, founding member of the Doors, dies at 74

Manzarek co-founded the Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock-and-roll...

US actress Rosario Dawson smiles on May 20, 2013 as she arrives for the screening of the film 'Wara No Tate' (Shield of Straw) presented in Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Cannes, one of the world's top film festivals, opened on May 15 and will climax on May 26 with awards selected by a jury headed this year by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLIALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

Eye on entertainment

Rosario Dawson, Alec Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Bow Wow, Amy Poehler and more.

A man walks on sulphur and mineral salt formations near Dallol in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia April 22, 2013. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country. Picture taken April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola (ETHIOPIA - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 2 OF 30 FOR PACKAGE 'ETHIOPIA'S ANCIENT SALT TRAIL'
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Ethiopia’s salt trail

For centuries, merchants have traveled to Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted...

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