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Flame out for now

By Jamie MacDonald, CNNSI.com

If you've ever seen a game at the Nassau Veterans Coliseum, you might wonder why in the world the Islanders would look so forward to getting back there. An ugly road trip has a way of doing that to a team. This week they get the big bounce back, mostly at Calgary's expense. Not coincidentally, the Flames just happen to be on the road.

CNNSI.com Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 1 Detroit Red Wings The NHL has an answer to the prevent defense and it wears a winged wheel. The Red Wings handed Chicago a point on Sunday, but wrapped up yet another seven-point week with a convincing 4-2 win over Calgary. 2 7 New York Islanders Home, sweet home. Since a rocky road trip ended Nov. 19, the Isles are 3-0-1-0 after outscoring Colorado, Toronto, Anaheim and Washington a combined 18-13. No great advantage, but it's funny how hat tricks change a game. Thanks to Mark Parrish on Saturday and Mariusz Czerkawski on Tuesday, the Isles keep watch over the Atlantic. 3 3 Chicago Blackhawks If a professional hockey team is playing in Nashville on a Wednesday, in Columbus on a Friday and in Detroit on a Saturday, might that club be distracted by the Saturday game? Doubtful with a Brian Sutter team, but Exhibit A is a 4-3 loss to the Predators and 2-2 tie with Columbus, the first of three consecutive ties. 4 5 Edmonton Oilers Last month it was Ty Conklin. Wednesday night it was Jussi Markkanen. Both goaltenders made their NHL debuts with wins over struggling teams. We'll give Markkanen extra credit for hanging a shutout on the Ducks. 5 2 Calgary Flames No doubt distracted by all the Stampeders hype back home, the Flames hit the road and seem to have lost their way. A tie in Ottawa followed by losses in Buffalo, Columbus and Detroit. Giving up four goals in Detroit we can understand. But a combined nine in Buffalo and Columbus? Not so much. 6 4 New York Rangers If they could fill the net the way they filled the penalty box Friday and Saturday, we'd be talking about an 11-game undefeated streak instead of a three-game winless streak. 7 6 Toronto Maple Leafs With the exception of a 29-save shutout over the can't-shoot-straight Bruins, CuJo allowed seven goals (including a Sami Kapanen hat trick) on 40 shots in a couple losses. 8 8 Ottawa Senators We're cutting the Sens some slack for that ugly 6-3 loss to Atlanta, but they won't get the key to the up elevator until they allow fewer than four goals in a game. 9 11 St. Louis Blues Sure, Ottawa may have been handing out four courtesy goals a game, but the Blues just might have found some offense at home. After a winless five-game road trip, Pavol Demitra (three goals) and Keith Tkachuk (two goals) led St. Louis to its first back-to-back wins in three weeks. Home-and-home with Columbus awaits, followed by three more roadies. 10 10 Carolina Hurricanes Ho-hum. A tie, a loss and a win last week. We don't punish ties too harshly here, but we do wrestle with the weight of giving up two shorthanded goals in a loss to Tampa Bay versus Sami Kapanen's third career hat trick against Curtis Joseph two days later. We'll call it even. 11 8 San Jose Sharks Hmmm ... Teemu Selanne has his first multiple-goal game of the season and the Sharks end a four-game winless streak. Coincidence? Probably not, but the return of Bryan Marchment sure helped, too. 12 13 Boston Bruins If only points were awarded on the basis of shots taken. In a Tuesday win over Tampa Bay, they were -- to the tune of six goals. Still, this is the NHL's answer to Jacque Vaughn. 13 14 Philadelphia Flyers All the talk in Philly: A different approach on what has become a punchless power play. And this new one works from the goal line out, instead of from the blue line in. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, only two other teams use this approach, the Red Wings and Wild, both with great success. Considering all that talent up front, it's so crazy it just might work. 14 16 Colorado Avalanche Each time the Avalanche have won two or three in a row this season they've hit the road, where a losing streak followed. And wouldn't you know it, after a reunited Joe Sakic-Alex Tanguy-Milan Hejduk scored a couple goals in the second win of the week, Colorado is on the road again. 15 17 Montreal Canadiens Remember earlier this season when we weren't sure what to make of the Canadiens doing all that winning? Well, we're there again. Or they're there again. Whatever. In any case, Donald Audette seems a whole lot more suited to the Habs offense, which scored 15 goals in three wins last week. 16 12 Phoenix Coyotes If a hockey arena agreement is reached in the desert, does it make any noise? Certainly more than three losses on the road last week. 17 18 Pittsburgh Penguins Seems the Devils are the cure to whatever ails the Pens. Too bad hardly anyone saw Robert Lang's four-point night or the six they dropped on New Jersey. With a recorded crowd of only 13,410, it was Pittsburgh's smallest home crowd of the season. Their smallest road crowd? At Continental Airlines on Nov. 13. 18 20 Dallas Stars Enter Martin Rucinsky, Benoit Brunet and Dave "don't we need another gritty veteran around here" Manson. Perhaps, in the midst of this turnover and a four-game, north-by-northwest road trip, the Stars can build on what was on Wednesday a 3-1-3-0 stretch. 19 21 Minnesota Wild Save for the way they opened the season (10 points in seven games), the Wild comes off its best week of the year. Eight points over their last six games ain't too shabby, and they went 3-1-0-0 last week against San Jose, Phoenix, Dallas and Vancouver. 20 19 Vancouver Canucks With three more this week, the Canucks have lost 11 road games, the most in the NHL. (Only 11 teams have 11 total losses.) Good news is the five-game home stand that begins Friday. 21 22 Nashville Predators How many of these names ring a bell? Kimmo Timonen, Vitaly Yachmanev, Andy Delmore, David Legwand, Denis Arkhipov, Martin Erat, Karlis Skrastins and Vladimir Orszagh. That elite eight combined last week to score 11 goals and lead the Preds to two wins and a one-goal loss. Hip, hip, hooraaaay. 22 23 Buffalo Sabres Encouraging week, unless your name is Slava Kozlov. At least in the midst of his team's 3-1-1-0 run, he and Lindy Ruff can agree on this much: Both have essentially said that Slava doesn't think Slava should be scratched on a team like the Sabres. 23 26 Los Angeles Kings After being suffocated into a 10-shot "effort" against the Wings two weeks ago, Andy Murray opted for a public whupping of his team. The concern, of course, is going to that well too often. Considering the way L.A. responded -- tie-tie-win-win, 14 goals in four games -- perhaps Murray won't have to worry about it. 24 15 New Jersey Devils We left the Devils alone over Thanksgiving. And we're sorry about that now, after their one win in nine games. In a 6-0 Tuesday loss to Pittsburgh, Larry Robinson mixed up the A-Line and pulled Martin Brodeur. No rest for the wicked, either, beginning with a weekend home-and-home vs. Detroit. 25 25 Tampa Bay Lightning A wise man -- OK, it was Jon Bon Jovi -- once said something about going down in a blaze of glory. Nikolai Khabibulin went 178-odd minutes without allowing a goal. Then the gang that could shoot straight (are you enjoying all this Young Guns imagery?) pumped four past him. 26 24 Anaheim Mighty Ducks After a 6-0 loss to the Bure-less Panthers, Paul Kariya called out his teammates. "Three-quarters of the team doesn't even show up to play tonight. It's a joke. Professional athletes, it's a shame." Perhaps that message took a day or two to sink in. The Ducks lost on Long Island Saturday but beat the Rangers on Sunday to soothe the sting of a horrid road trip. 27 28 Columbus Blue Jackets Talk about your moral victories ... outscored only 3-2 in a win and a loss vs. Detroit and Chicago. For their next act, the Jackets beat Calgary and Phoenix. The guy with the best seat in the house, Ron Tugnutt, attributes it all to hard work. Hard work is rewarded here, too. 28 27 Washington Capitals Go ahead, we dare you. Figure this team out. In their last four: 6-2 win, 5-3 loss, 5-5 tie, 5-2 loss. You think it's any coincidence the results are so similar to those in the Penguins' Jagr era? 29 30 Atlanta Thrashers Who are we to turn our backs on the confluence of coincidence and minutiae? When wonderboys Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk score in the same game, the Thrashers are 0-3-0-0. But they happen to be a sparkling 4-0-2-1 when Kovalchuk scores and Heatley doesn't, including a 6-3 whipping of the then-red-hot Senators. 30 29 Florida Panthers The Miami Herald Web site lists auto racing, baseball, basketball, boxing, college sports, columnists, football, golf and high school sports before hockey on the left-column nav bar. Hockey sure seems to be catching on there. Wonder if locals know the Panthers are playing without Bure. Either of them.

 

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