Heading into Tuesday night’s action, the Metropolitan Division was a force unequaled.
Combined, the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Washington Capitals were in the throes of a 28-game winning streak and boasted a cumulative goal differential of plus-105. (The Jackets and Capitals extended their runs, while the Rangers had theirs ended by Chicago.)
How deep is the Metro? Good enough that it has no use for Henrik Lundqvist anymore. Good enough that Wayne Simmonds now ranks among the NHL’s All-Star Game’s leading vote-getters. And good enough that the Blue Jackets have the best points percentage of any NHL club and still rank third in their own division.
Just try and take a wild-card spot from these monsters, you Atlantic Division weaklings.
Facts and numbers — the lifeblood of sports nerdery — can be fun and revealing (and misleading, too).
We focus on the first two categories in this week’s NHL Power Rankings: 30 Revealing Stats Edition, which is all kinds of top-heavy with Metropolitonians.
| Rank | Team | Previous | |
| 1 |  |
Sam Gagner has 12 goals and 21 points in 26 appearances this season, already crushing his 2015-16 totals (eight goals and 16 points in 53 games). |
1 |
| 2 |  |
Sidney Crosby has racked up 13 points in his active seven-game scoring streak and now leads the NHL with 21 goals. |
6 |
| 3 |  |
As awesome as the Blackhawks are, their penalty kill has more holes than a Montreal highway. At 72.7 per cent, the Hawks have the worst PK in the NHL. |
4 |
| 4 |  |
The Canadiens needed just 13:47 to bolt to a 6-0 lead over Colorado Saturday, and that’s not a franchise record for fastest six goals to open a game. The Habs scored six in the opening 10:35 versus Chicago back in 1951. |
5 |
| 5 |  |
Second Star of the Week Antti Raanta went 3-0-0 with a 0.33 goals-against average, .984 save percentage and two shutouts in three games. He makes $7.5 million less than healthy counterpart Henrik Lundqvist yet got four consecutive starts. |
3 |
| 6 |  |
Jakub Voracek, the NHL’s First Star of the Week, became the first Flyers player to collect four-plus points in consecutive games since Eric Lindros accomplished the feat in 1997-98. |
7 |
| 7 |  |
This week, Eric Staal became the first player from the 2003 NHL Draft class to hit the 800-point milestone. |
15 |
| 8 |  |
When Alex Ovechkin recorded his 93rd career game-winning goal Sunday (fifth this season) he passed Mike Modano, Mark Messier and Jeremy Roenick (92) and tied Johnny Bucyk, Sergei Fedorov and Joe Nieuwendyk for 13th place in NHL history. |
10 |
| 9 |  |
The San Jose Sharks — Stanley Cup finalists in 2016 — rank second-last in road attendance, averaging 15,925 fans in enemy barns. |
9 |
| 10 |  |
Nail Yakupov has only played in 18 of the Blues’ 30 games this season. He’s healthy. |
2 |
| 11 |  |
How weird is this? The Bruins rank second in shots per game (33) but just 25th in goals per game (2.3). |
11 |
| 12 |  |
Since returning from injury on Dec. 4, Johnny Gaudreau has four multiple-point efforts in as many games. |
13 |
| 13 |  |
P.K. Subban already has more goals (seven) than he did in all of 2015-16 with Montreal (six) and more than twice as many as teammate Filip Forsberg, a should-be sniper. |
14 |
| 14 |  |
Senators forward Chris Neil is now a member of the NHL’s 1,000 Games Club. |
18 |
| 15 |  |
Led by Ryan Kesler, the Ducks’ face-off rate is the best in the biz (56.4 per cent). |
19 |
| 16 |  |
Before losing 3-1 to Columbus Tuesday, the Oilers’ past six games had all been decided by one goal. It’s now 13 games and counting since the Oilers beat a team not named the Winnipeg Jets in regulation. |
8 |
| 17 |  |
Waived winger Teddy Purcell has exploded (relatively speaking) for four points in four games since being sent down the AHL Ontario Reign. He mustered just two assists in 12 games as a King. |
17 |
| 18 |  |
Goaltender Ben Bishop’s .906 save percentage is his lowest in any NHL season in which he’s played more than seven games. |
16 |
| 19 |  |
With eight goals and 21 points, veteran centre Travis Zajac is on target for his most productive season in seven years. |
12 |
| 20 |  |
For the second straight season, Carolina is on pace to have the lowest home attendance in the league, averaging 11,037 fans per game. |
24 |
| 21 |  |
The Maple Leafs have three players in the top four rookie scoring leaders: Auston Matthews (22 points), Mitch Marner (20) and William Nylander (19). |
22 |
| 22 |  |
The Red Wings aren’t having a great campaign. Consider where they’d be without an NHL-best four shootout wins. |
21 |
| 23 |  |
By securing his 446th career win over the weekend, Roberto Luongo moved within one of tying Terry Sawchuk (447) for fifth place all-time… then he allowed five goals on Tuesday for the first time this season. |
20 |
| 24 |  |
With 16 points through 31 games, pesty Antoine Roussel should surpass his career-high point total of 29. |
25 |
| 25 |  |
Kyle Okposo leads all Sabres with nine goals and 12 assists, precisely triple the goals and quadruple the assists of the Islanders’ Andrew Ladd. |
26 |
| 26 |  |
John Tavares and the Islanders are rebounding from slow starts to the season. The captain had a five-game point streak going until Tuesday’s loss to the Capitals. |
27 |
| 27 |  |
No team has played more games than the Winnipeg Jets (32). Keep that in mind when you look at their place in the wild card standings. (The Oilers are the only other team to have played that often.) |
23 |
| 28 |  |
No Canucks forward has a positive plus/minus rating. (Alex Burrows and Jayson Megna top all with even ratings.) |
28 |
| 29 |  |
Maligned goaltender Semyon Varlamov rallied from Saturday’s 10-1 defeat in Montreal to stop a whopping 51 shots in Toronto Sunday. |
30 |
| 30 |  |
Brendan Perlini, a native of Guildford, U.K., scored his first career NHL goal Saturday, becoming the first British-born rookie to score a goal since Kevin Brown did so for the Kings in 1994-95. |
29 |
