Puck Daddy Power Rankings: Bruins' playoff hopes; college hockey awards; Calder race

[Author's note: Power rankings are usually three things: Bad, wrong, and boring. You typically know just as well as the authors which teams won what games against who and what it all means, so our moving the Red Wings up four spots or whatever really doesn't tell you anything you didn't know. Who's hot, who's not, who cares? For this reason, we're doing a power ranking of things that are usually not teams. You'll see what I mean.] 

7. “Fans don't care about CapGeek.”

Just make salary information publicly available, you dopes. Everyone wants it.

6. The Bruins

Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, the David Krejci-less Boston Bruins, losers of their last five and surrenderers of the final playoff spot in the East, announce that Dougie Hamilton is out “indefinitely.”

In effect, that probably means “until next season,” because the Bruins without their Nos. 2 center and defenseman are dead in the water, and that's if Andrew Hammond starts playing to his career average starting tomorrow.

Hell, even having one of them out for an extended is going to be cause for concern, and Krejci's not showing his hand as to whether he'll be good to go against Anaheim — just what any team fighting for a playoff spot having lost six straight needs: A game against the Ducks — on Thursday.

You can say what you want about Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg, mainly that they're no Krejci, but the dropoff in quality overall isn't as stark as it is from Hamilton to, say, Dennis Seidenberg. The Bruins have blue line problems to begin with; center depth not so much. Adding in any sort of extensive injury to Hamilton, who in addition to being very good also has an extraordinarily high ceiling, and you're asking for trouble, especially at this late stage.

The thing is that if the Bruins are going to trade back-and-forth shots with the Sens over the next two weeks, they at least have the talent level to go punch for punch and see where they're at when the season ends. Without Hamilton, it's a lot more difficult to see that being a possibility.

Which means that we have to at least think about the reality that the Bruins' window is now effectively closed, because if they don't make the playoffs, big changes are coming. We've been talking for a while now about the possibility that either or both of Claude Julien and Peter Chiarelli could find themselves canned, and it wouldn't be a good idea. But it's what might (probably will?) happen.

The Bruins are a team with flaws but which has a very good skeleton. Hamilton looks like he could be a No. 1 defenseman, they have an elite one-two punch down the middle, and one of the best goaltenders alive (i.e. in an “off year” his .921 save percentage is something most NHL goalies could only dream of).

If they were run a little better maybe they're in the playoffs this year — not having all that dead cap money left over from last year probably killed them — but you once again have to look at everything that's happened this year through the lens of: “Chiarelli pushed all-in on last season, and lost with a pair of pocket aces.”

They had to know this season could have turned out like this, but man the end is shaping up to be torturous.

5. College hockey awards

I love college hockey more than anyone living or dead. I'm going to five games in three days this weekend, and I will probably see about 80 live before the season is over. I write about it for two outlets, and so on. And believe me when I tell you that nothing in the sport is dumber than the people who vote for awards.

For instance, Jack Eichel should win the Hobey Baker this year in a runaway, because he has 66 points in 36 games and that's 1.83 points per game and no one else is north of 1.57. He's also doing this as the fourth-youngest player in the country. But the Hobey is awarded not to the best player in the country, but the great player who is also the nicest (seriously: “Strength of character, on and off the ice” is the No. 1 criteria, which is so dumb as to boggle the mind.)

But this is really only done selectively; sometimes the nicest guy wins but mostly it's the best player. It's only when there's enough reason to complain about the best player — Eichel drank beer can you believe an 18-year-old would do such a thing!!!!! — that this is up for debate. If Eichel doesn't get caught on Snapchat or whatever, we're not having a discussion about Jimmy Vesey winning the Walter Brown award, because he doesn't win it.

(The Walter Brown award is given to the best American-born college player in New England. Vesey had a great year but Eichel's was better by a significant margin.)

The people who vote on these things didn't even give Johnny Gaudreau, who put up 80 points in 40 games, the Hobey unanimously last year. A guy who finished with fewer points on the year than Gaudreau had assists was in the final three because he is A Nice Boy.

Eichel's going to fall into the same category. And it's not really decided that he's going to even win the Hobey. Which I can't believe I have to say, but I do believe that college hockey awards voters are that demonstrably dumb.

And would it shock you to learn balloting for most of these awards is kept secret? Oh yeah, buddy.

4. Ilya Kovalchuk's return

Wow, you mean the NHL might be able to lure Kovalchuk, who's not even really dominating the KHL to any great extent, back when he's just 34 years old? Where do I sign up?!

3. Weirdly valuable players

You will never ever in your entire life hear someone refer to Chris Tanev as any kind of great defenseman. But Chris Tanev is kind of a great defenseman.

He just re-upped with Vancouver for five years, with a cap hit of $4.45 million, which has to be the largest cap hit for a player most hardcore hockey fans couldn't pick out of a lineup. But here's the thing: Tanev has the best CF% on the Canucks, ahead of even Alex Edler, and he just recently turned 25. He doesn't pile up points, but if he'd hit the open market there would have been a feeding frenzy of smart teams.

Among defensemen with more than 1,000 minutes at evens this season, Tanev's possession numbers are tied for 27th out of 92, putting him well into the class of “No.1 defenseman” even if the points per 60 is eighth from the bottom. Which is why Vancouver was able to get him so cheap. If those numbers were even somewhat near the league average for those 92 defensemen, some of whom are still on their entry-level deals, the cost would have gone up a lot.

Locking down a defenseman of that quality, regardless of the lack of offense, for basically the entirety of his prime (that is: until he's almost 31) is almost certainly going to look like a smart bet. We generally find that high-corsi players can keep up that skill as they age, but not so much with the offense.

And what's Tanev gonna do if his game is diminished four years from now? Score less?

2. The Calder race

A month or two ago this probably didn't seem that interesting.

“Filip Forsberg's getting his name on the trophy unless something horrible happens,” was the general discussion point around Calder voting. And something horrible happened: Forsberg stopped scoring.

That opened the door for Johnny Gaudreau, who has 51 points in 61 games since October (about a 69-point pace), to state his case. And look, Gaudreau is basically one of three reasons the Flames are still alive at this point (the other two are Sean Monahan, who's having a brilliant sophomore season, and Jiri Hudler, who continues to dazzle as he did last season). So you have to ask yourself whether that should be enough.

The fact that we're even having the conversation at this point shows how sharply Forsberg has dropped off, but what it doesn't mention is the fact that Aaron Ekblad is having an historically great rookie season. And that's beyond the very respectable 35 points he's compiled in his first 71 games. He's actually getting more difficult minutes than you might expect (but not as difficult as some make them out to be), and his CF% is north of 53. Add in the 21 points at evens — his 1.03 per 60 is tied for 34th in the NHL with Johnny Boychuk and only a shade behind Alex Goligoski, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Shea Weber — and you're talking about a guy who's a very legitimate candidate.

But defensemen don't win awards that are typically won by forwards, so this is basically Gaudreau's to lose at this point. We're talking 0-fer down the stretch. Or, put another way, “pulling a Forsberg.”

1. Partnership

Well done to the Canadiens. There's no reason on earth that the NHL shouldn't have a partnership with the CWHL, but if it's not going to, the local clubs really ought to pick up the slack. Boston, Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal all have clubs (there's a fifth in Brampton) and the fact that the Boston Blades and Brampton Thunder don't have an NHL team supporting them is sad.

Okay, fine, Brampton might need the Sabres to step up or something, but the Bruins not helping out is weak.

Really ought to change, y'know?

(Not ranked this week: Your team's “playoff push.”

If you're like five or six points out with nine games to go, you're not making up the ground. It's not gonna happen. It just isn't. Sorry to the Stars and Sharks and Panthers but this is over for you. Start booking your summer getaways.)

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