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With another week of the 2021-22 NHL season in the background, the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers are among the teams who have made a jump in the rankings this week.
And while every team has had its fair share of surprises during the campaign, we set out to identify the biggest of them for all 32 here.
How we rank: A panel of ESPN hockey commentators, analysts, reporters and editors rates teams against one another — taking into account game results, injuries and upcoming schedule — and those results are tabulated to produce the list featured here.
Note: Previous ranking for each team refers to last week’s edition, published on Dec. 1. Points percentages are through Tuesday’s games.
Previous ranking: 2
Points percentage: 0.760
Upcoming schedule: @ ARI (Dec. 10), @ COL (Dec. 12), vs. OTT (Dec. 14)
Florida has handled adversity surprisingly well so far. Head coach Joel Quenneville resigns? Enter Andrew Brunette. Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling or Sergei Bobrovsky (who’s surprising many with a bounce-back season) get hurt? It’s next man up. The Panthers keep proving they can weather a storm, without losing more than two consecutive games in regulation all season.
Previous ranking: 4
Points percentage: 0.704
Upcoming schedule: vs. TB (Dec. 9), vs. CHI (Dec. 11), @ EDM (Dec. 14)
Jack Campbell has been shockingly good in net for Toronto. Even his breakout campaign last season hasn’t lessened the surprise of his current surge, which has him sitting atop the NHL goalie field through 20 games at 13-4-2 with a .942 save percentage and 1.78 goals-against average.
Previous ranking: 6
Points percentage: 0.673
Upcoming schedule: vs. CAR (Dec. 9), vs. BOS (Dec. 11), @ CHI (Dec. 13), @ NSH (Dec. 14)
Calgary is the most surprising team of the season. Period. And Andrew Mangiapane must be the NHL’s most unexpected star. Darryl Sutter’s squad has used great defense, excellent goaltending and red-hot offensive performances to go from “bubble playoff contender” to “could they go all…
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Source : espn
