by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images
It’s not easy to repeat in professional sports.
It’s particularly difficult in the NHL, where only two teams—the Pittsburgh Penguins (2016, 2017) and Tampa Bay Lightning (2020, 2021)—have accomplished it in the 21st century.
So it was easy to begin 2023-24 with the notion that the league’s incumbent Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, would be off the pace.
As it turned out, the notion couldn’t be more wrong.
Coach Bruce Cassidy’s team has not just thrived through the first two weeks of the schedule, it’s dominated.
The Golden Knights were the league’s lone 7-0-0 team through Tuesday’s games, and that pristine mark has already yielded the first repeat of the season, atop B/R’s weekly Power Rankings.
Vegas swept the first-place votes to close six points ahead of second-place Colorado in the balloting, which awards 32 points for first-place votes down to one point for a No. 32 vote.
The Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils rounded out the weekly top five, with the Stars and Devils displacing the plummeting Carolina Hurricanes (second to 20th) and Pittsburgh Penguins (fifth to 26th) from last week.
Scroll through to see where your favorite team wound up and drop a rankings thought of your own in the comments.
