NHL power rankings for mid-March

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Previous rankings are in parentheses, from start of November to present.

TOP TIER

1 St. Louis (10-5-3-5-4-3-4-3)

2 San Jose (1-10-2-6-5-5-6-6)

3 Pittsburgh (5-12-7-7-3-2-2-2)

4 Chicago (6-3-1-1-1-4-3-4)

5 Anaheim (2-1-6-2-2-1-1-1)

6 Boston (12-11-4-4-6-6-7-7)

7 Colorado (3-2-5-8-11-7-5-5)

SECOND TIER

8 Los Angeles (9-9-8-3-8-10-9-11)

THIRD TIER

9 Montreal (13-17-12-10-10-9-13-12)

10 Minnesota (15-6-10-12-17-12-12-8)

11 Toronto (4-13-16-17-16-17-10-9)

12 Dallas (19-20-20-16-13-21-22-18)

13 Philadelphia (29-27-21-23-18-14-23-16)

14 Columbus (26-26-26-21-24-19-15-24)

15 New York Rangers (23-16-19-25-23-13-11-13)

16 Tampa Bay (11-7-13-14-9-8-8-10)

17 New Jersey (25-22-22-26-19-22-24-21)

18 Phoenix (7-4-11-11-12-18-19-20)

19 Detroit (14-14-9-13-15-15-16-14)

20 Washington (20-15-15-15-14-16-25-15)

21 Winnipeg (18-21-18-20-22-24-21-17)

22 Ottawa (21-18-24-22-21-20-20-22)

23 Nashville (16-19-17-19-20-25-18-19)

24 Vancouver (8-8-14-9-7-11-14-23)

25 Carolina (24-23-23-18-25-23-17-25)

FOURTH TIER

26 New York Islanders (22-24-27-29-28-26-26-26)

27 Calgary (17-25-25-24-27-28-27-27)

28 Edmonton (28-28-28-28-29-29-29-29)

29 Florida (27-29-29-27-26-27-28-28)

FIFTH TIER

30 Buffalo (30-30-30-30-30-30-30-30)

BIGGEST RISERS: Columbus (10 spots), Dallas (6 spots), New Jersey and San Jose (4 spots), Los Angeles, Montreal and Philadelphia (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Tampa Bay (6 spots), Detroit and Washington (5 spots), Anaheim, Nashville and Winnipeg (4 spots)

RANKINGS BY DIVISION – 1 POINT PER RANKING SPOT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM, DIVIDED BY THE NUMBER OF TEAMS, LOWEST SCORE IS BEST

1 CENTRAL 11.14

2 PACIFIC 16

3 METROPOLITAN 16.88

4 ATLANTIC 17.75

RANKINGS BY CONFERENCE

1 WEST 27.14

2 EAST 34.63