The New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers could be on a collision course to meet in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the sixth time in NHL history and first time in 11 years.
The teams that make up the “Hudson River Rivalry” nearly collided in the Super 16 power rankings this week.
The Devils lead the Rangers by one voting point, 152-151, but fell one spot from last week and find themselves in fourth place this week. New York, which had won three straight before a 2-1 loss to New Jersey at the Prudential Center on Thursday, moved up three spots to fifth.
The Boston Bruins, unsurprisingly, are once again the unanimous number one. This is the fifth straight week that the Bruins have been the unanimous number one among the 13 voters who participate in the Super 16 rankings each week. This is their 20th consecutive week at the top of the Super 16.
They won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best regular-season record in the NHL and set a Bruins record for wins in a season with 58 in a 2-1 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at TD Garden on Thursday. Boston won 57 games in 1970-71 before losing in seven games to the Montreal Canadiens in the quarterfinals.
But the Bruins, like the Devils, Rangers and the 13 other teams ranked this week, all have questions they need to answer before the 2023 playoffs begin. For some, the questions need to be answered sooner rather than later. they’re just planning to make the playoffs.
That’s the theme this week of the Super 16, the big question facing every team as the regular season draws to a close in the next two weeks.
As a reminder, to develop the Super 16 each week, the 13 voters developed their own version of what they think the ranking should look like. A total of points awarded to each, the team selected first receives 16 points, second 15, third 14, and so on down the line.
Here it is, with a participating voter writing about a big question facing every team.
