Is Buffalo The Best Team In The NHL?

The Buffalo Sabres came very close to knocking off the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in the semi-finals last season. They probably would have were it not for a very injured defence. They started off this season with a winning streak that tied the record for consecutive wins at the beginning of a season (with 10). Therefore many people are rating them the best tream in the NHL (for example the TSN power rankings). These kinds of rankings cannot be taken too seriously, because it is fairly routine that a team goes on a three game losing streak and suddenly drops 10-15 points. Isn't that a huge overreaction to a minor speedbump?

In an effort to better quantify the power ranking process, David Johnson's Hockey Analysis has a system that uses the record to date (adjusted to call any game that goes to a shootout a tie and subtracts any overtime loss points) and adjusts it for the strength of schedule that teams have played against (which in the days of the unbalanced schedule can vary widely).

The first thing that David noticed is that three of buffalo's wins came in shootouts. Prior to the lockout, their record would have been 7-0-3 in their first 10 games and not 10-0. Its not accurate to say that the "record" they tied is as big as achievement as that of the 1993 Toronto Maple Leafs who went 10-0 without shootouts (but did not win the Stanley Cup). The shootout makes Buffalo's record look better than it is. When we look even deeper, we see that Buffalo faced a pretty low level of competition. They played teams off to very weak starts like Philadelphia, Boston and the NY Islanders and Rangers. In fact Buffalo faced the fourth worst quality of opposition by Johnson's rankings (as of October 25th). Once again, I will conclude that some pundits are overrating Buffalo. They are not as good as a first glance at their record might indicate.

Buffalo is not the best team in the NHL. In fact, Johnson rates them 12th. His rankings have San Jose as the best team in the NHL. However, in the era of enforced parity it is probably most correct to say that no one team is the best in the NHL. The difference between the 1st and 12th place teams is small. A slump or an injury could change their order. A couple slumps and injuries and the best teams are missing the playoffs. Is this a good thing? Most of the league has a chance at being in first place and winning the cup, but nobody is truly great. As a fan we lose out on the chance to see truly great teams because all the teams are not too far removed from average.