Vancouver Canucks surge in this week’s NHL power rankings

After starting out the season at 6-3-1, the Vancouver Canucks have dropped a pair of home games this week — but also saw a major jump in power rankings across the web.

The Vancouver Canucks exceeded expectations in the first month of the season, closing out October with a 6-3-2 record — before falling to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.

Right now, the Canucks are the seventh seed in the Western Conference — thanks in large part to awful starts from Pacific Division powerhouses like the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers. Of course, there are still 70 games left — and the Canucks have to clean up some woes on offence and defence if they are to fight for a playoff spot.

But fans can’t be disappointed with what they’ve seen. Promising rookie Brock Boeser hasn’t disappointed with nine points in nine games, while the goalie tandem of Anders Nilsson and Jacob Markstrom has been excellent — with goals against averages of 1.88 and 2.25, respectively.

The Canucks ranked well in power rankings across the internet last week, but things took off even further this week.. Let’s take a look at where they moved in some of the latest rankings around the web.

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Over at TSN.ca, the Canucks got a major jump and landed in the seventh spot. They ranked 17th last week, so this was quite the boost.

After falling at the 24th spot last week, the Canucks were given a nice jump by J.J. Regan of NBC Sports, placing them up to 16th.

Adam Gretz of NBC Sports also gave the Canucks a big improvement, having them at ninth overall.

Heading over to USA Today, Kevin Allen had the Canucks in the 11th slot, where he noted that they’re on pace for 104 points (!).

Meanwhile, the Canucks moved up a whopping 14 spots to come in at number nine at CBS Sports. Speaking of the ninth spot, that’s where Vancouver also placed on Sportsnet’s power rankings. They did it in Haiku form, in cleverly fashion:

Slowly dialing back
Travis Green taketh away
Twins’ ice time decline

So there you have it. The consensus among experts is the Canucks are a top-10 team to start the season thus far. Who could have seen that coming?

It’s still early in the season, but the Canucks will surely be taken more seriously if they piece together a strong showing in November. The goalies have had to steal a handful of games, so it’s key for the Canucks to score a few more goals.

Next: Canucks roundtable: Buying or selling hot start

Like I say every week; power rankings don’t mean matter all that much. But the better you’re playing, the higher you’re moving up. If the Canucks keep improving in power rankings, it means they’re doing plenty on the ice.