You know what time it is. Well, yes, it's time for our weekly installment of NHL Power Rankings, but with Halloween right around the corner it's also officially Spooky Season.
Who needs scary movies or haunted hay rides when you've got the NHL? There are plenty of scary storylines and characters across the league. With that in mind, this week's Power Rankings will celebrate Spooky Season. We highlighted the scariest thing about each NHL team right now.
While we're still working with a pretty small sample size of action in late October -- a snack size even -- the league's landscape is starting to come into clearer focus. Some hot starts have already faded, others are showing signs of slowing down, and some might actually be sustainable. Other teams that were surprisingly slow out of the gate are starting to dig themselves out of a hole.
Speaking of scary, one team we all should be legitimately afraid of is the Colorado Avalanche, who overtake the Carolina Hurricanes in the top spot this week. The Avs came into this season with plenty of hype and they've certainly lived up to it through nine games, sitting atop the league with a 7-1-1 record and the league's second-best goal differential (plus-12).
Their top line has looked like a three-headed monster once again and Nathan MacKinnon has recorded a point in all nine games, making him the fifth player in NHL history to open back-to-back seasons with a point streak spanning nine or more games. However, Mikko Rantanen (five goals, 12 points) suffered an unsettling lower body injury on Monday night and his absence would be a huge loss for Colorado.
What other frights await beyond the Avalanche? Let's wander into this week's rankings to find out.
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Nathan MacKinnon is a better bargain than free Halloween candy and will be until 2023. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 2 |  | The ghosts of hot starts past. | 3 | 0-0-0 |
| 3 |  | Only their top line is scoring and they still look really good. | -- | 0-0-0 |
| 4 |  | Their top line isn't scoring and they still look really good. | 3 | 0-0-0 |
| 5 |  | Connor McDavid is on pace for 155 points and, honestly, it doesn't seem that ridiculous. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 6 |  | If Marc-Andre Fleury keeps this up the Knights may just ride him until his body disintegrates into dust. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 7 |  | Braden Holtby hasn't been very good and...it hasn't really mattered? | 5 | 0-0-0 |
| 8 |  | None of this matters because they're getting Boston in the first round again. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 9 |  | They're losing enough that they may actually have to play meaningful games in the final few months of the season. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 10 |  | Alex Galchenyuk may have to leave the team to enter the Spider-Verse. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 11 |  | John Gibson. That's it. That's the scary monster. | 4 | 0-0-0 |
| 12 |  | Jordan Binnington's CuJo mask. | 6 | 0-0-0 |
| 13 |  | They looking good and coming off as likable and they haven't even worn the Flying Skate yet. | 5 | 0-0-0 |
| 14 |  | They're giving up more goals per game than Ottawa. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 15 |  | Max Domi is slowly morphing into the Joker. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 16 |  | They willingly traded for Milan Lucic. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 17 |  | Now the official NHL team of Kylie Jenner. | 3 | 0-0-0 |
| 18 |  | Martin Jones isn't even the worst starting goaltender in the state. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 19 |  | It would appear they've learned that scoring goals is good. | 5 | 0-0-0 |
| 20 |  | They'll be unbeatable if they can just keep facing third-string goaltenders all year long. | 11 | 0-0-0 |
| 21 |  | Remember what Patrik Laine looked like with a beard? | -- | 0-0-0 |
| 22 |  | That Sergei Bobrovsky deal. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 23 |  | It's scary how little there is to care about with this team right now. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 24 |  | The Bears are in a better place on special teams. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 25 |  | It's not even November and fake Twitter accounts are already trying to fire the coach. | 4 | 0-0-0 |
| 26 |  | Jonathan Quick's save percentage. | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 27 |  | The cannon. The number of people that thing scares every year is off the charts. (Though it's not getting a ton of use this year,) | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| 28 |  | Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn have combined for three goals in 11 games. Horse bowels activating. | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| 29 |  | The Devils might somehow be winning this rivalry. | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| 30 |  | Their leading scorer continuously gets mistaken for a valet attendant at the arena. | -- | 0-0-0 |
| 31 |  | Gary Bettman still thinks Eugene Melnyk is doing a bang-up job. | -- | 0-0-0 |
