This will be fairly straight forward and there is no personal bias here. I rank the teams in each conference in five categories Points, Goals For per Game, Goals Against per Game, Power Play Percentage, and Penalty Kill Percentage and sum them. The team with the lowest summed ranking (closest to first) is the best team in either conference. As the season wears on points will be weighted more and more as they will grow to become the most true representation of each team’s talent level.

The Sabres power play looks like the Penguins did a few years ago when they were rolling Malkin and Crosby and still only converting at around 12%.  The problem with their super talented players was they were all too aware of the talent disparity on the ice and they did what the Sabres so often do…they got cute.  An okay shooting opportunity is miles better than an okay passing opportunity, and yet players will constantly look for that perfect connection.  Which is even more ridiculous when the Sabres have one of the best guys in the league at turning okay shots into goals via deflection or finding the puck first in the scramble and hammering it in.

Enter: Matt Ellis.  Matt Ellis is not going to dick around spinning circles in the corner.  Matt Ellis is going to make the smart play and get the puck on the freaking net…which has been a major issue on the power play this season.  If it wasn’t for Vanek and Pominville, with whom you can pair a dog turd and still score goals, the power play would be fucking terrible.  And Matt Ellis’s appearance will show the rest of the forwards to get their shit together and stop playing like lazy idiots.