Power Play: Week 18

The top two players on The Power Play list, Sidney Crosby and Martin Brodeur, have completely distanced themselves from the rest of the pack this season -- leaving zero doubts to their greatness. Others who are picking up speed as the season progresses include: Roberto Luongo (#9), Alexander Semin (#27) and Dion Phaneuf (#43), while Ryan Miller (#31) Brendan Shanahan (#44) and Slava Kozlov (#46) are playing as if they no longer want to be mentioned here on a weekly basis.

1. Sidney Crosby, C, PIT: What more can be said then Wayne Gretzky saying you are the best thing going? With 78 points in 45 games he is on a pace for over 140 points if he were to play 82 games.

2. Martin Brodeur, G, NJ: Brodeur leads NHL in Wins (30), GAA (1.99), save percentage (.929) shutouts (9) and saves (1255). That's all there is right?

3. Teemu Selanne, RW, ANA: Selanne is the only player in the NHL with 30 goals (31) and a plus/minus of +20. He also leads the NHL with 17 power-play goals.

4. Marian Hossa, RW, ATL: Hossa has scored 6 points in his last five games after a stretch of 4-games without a point.

5. Dany Heatley, RW, OTT: In 133 games as a Senator Heatley has 168 points, which is a 104 points pace over 82 games. He has 65 points in 52 games this season.

6. Alexander Ovechkin, LW, WAS: How bad are the Caps you ask? Well, AO has 18 points in his last 11 games and he is still a (-5) during that stretch. Of course, that's what scoring 10 of those points with the man-advantage will do.

7. Martin St. Louis, RW, TB: St. Louis has almost identical numbers to his teammate Lecavalier with 66 points and 10 power-play goals, but it's his RW eligibility that ranks him higher on this list.

8. Vincent Lecavalier, C, TB: Lecavalier has 65 points with 11 power-play goals as the Bolts top center this year.

9. Roberto Luongo, G, VAN: Over his last 10 starts Luongo is 8-1-1 with a 1.86 GA and .946 save percentage. For those of you new to the game of hockey, that's really good.

10. Joe Thornton, C, SJ: In his first 26 games Big Joe had 27 points. In the 24 games since Thornton has 35 points and is a +8 with 21 of the points coming on the power-play.

11. Jaromir Jagr, LW, NYR: Jagr has 2 goals in his last four games, but they are his only points during that time.

12. Marc Savard, C, BOS: After a run of 10 points in five games, Savard has now gone three games without a point.

13. Nicklas Lidstrom, D, DET: With a +32 on the season, Lidstrom has only 10 games this season with a minus rating (he has skated in 51 games on the season).

14. Dominik Hasek, G, DET: Hasek made 11 saves the other night and got the win (he only faced 12 shots). With a defense like that, it's no wonder he is 26-8-3 on the year.

15. Chris Pronger, D, ANA: In his first game back from his broken foot, Pronger skated almost 27 minutes and had a fight.

16. Miikka Kiprusoff, G, CGY: Despite two straight OT loses, Kipper is still 6-3-2 on the month with a 2.07 GAA.

17. J-S Giguere, G, ANA: Back in action for the first time in well over a month, Giguere made 30 saves to improve to 24-4-5 on the year.

18. Jarome Iginla, RW, CGY: Iginla hopes to return this week from his sprained MCL. Despite only 39 games played, Iginla still leads the Flames in goals (23) and points (53).

19. Scott Niedermayer, D, ANA: Out with a stress fracture in his foot, Niedermayer has missed only two games in his previous three seasons.

20. Martin Straka, C, NYR: After 9 points in his first 4-games in January, Straka has only 3 points in his last 6 games.

21. Ilya Kovalchuk, LW, ATL: Ilya is working on a 5-game point streak for the Thrashers (4g, 3a with a +5).

22. Sheldon Souray, D, MON: Souray already has career-highs in goals (17), points (41) and power-play points (30).

23. Tomas Vanek, LW, BUF: Vanek has one point more this season in 51 games (49) than he scored all of last year in 81. That, and his plus-minus has improved by 35 up to (+24).

24. Patrick Marleau, C, SJ: In his last 10 contests the Sharks captain has 7 goals, 18 points and is a +9.

25. Evgeni Malkin, C/LW, PIT: Even without scoring in his last 2-games, his longest scoring drought of the season, Malkin still has 12 points in his last seven games.

26. Marty Turco, G, DAL: Turco has played 10 games in the month of January but has had a save percentage above .900 in only four of those games (its was .900 in another).

27. Alexander Semin, RW, WAS: Don't look know but this Russian sniper has 29 goals on the season after an insane total of 12 goals in his last 10 games.

28. Ray Whitney, LW, CAR: Whitney just lost an 8-game scoring streak during which time he notched 13 points (4g, 9a).

29. Michael Nylander, C, NYR: Nylander continues to put up the points with 13 in his last 11 contests.

30. Maxim Afinogenov, RW, BUF: Maxim has only 1 goal in his last eight games though his 21 tallies on the season are just 1 behind the career-high total he scored last season.

31. Ryan Miller, G, BUF: In his last four starts, and 5 of the last 6, Miller has had a save percentage under .900. The result has been a 2-3-1 record.

32. Rod Brind'Amour, C, CAR: Consistent, steady, reliable, these are all words that come to mind with 'Rod the Bod.' Brind'Amour has 9 points and is a +6 in his last nine games.

33. Chris Mason, G, NSH: Even with the return of Tomas Vokoun, Mason certainly isn't going to just give up his post as he has gone 3-0 in his last 3 starts, and 7-2 in his last nine.

34. Jason Spezza, C, OTT: in two games since returning from his injured knee, Spezza has only one assist but that still leaves him with 45 points in 37 games on the season.

35. Ray Emery, G, OTT: Emery has given up only 5 goals in his last four starts and has a 6-1 record in his last seven games.

36. Daniel Alfredsson, RW, OTT: Over his last nine games Alfredsson has 15 points though he has now gone three games with a goal.

37. Daniel Briere, C, BUF: The All-Star game MVP leads the Sabres in assists (42) and points (60).

38. Vesa Toskala, G, SJ: Vesa has 21 wins on the season in 28 games. Here are a few of the other goalies who also have 21 wins with their games played totals in parenthesis: Manny Fernandez (42), Andrew Raycroft (41), Cam Ward (40) and Marc-Andre Fleury (39).

39. Joe Sakic, C, COL: Does being this good get boring? With 53 points in 49 games, Sakic is well on his way to scoring at a point-per-game pace for the seventh time in eight seasons and the 15th time in 18 seasons.

40. Cristobal Huet, MON, G: Huet has really started to struggle of late and has allowed at least 4 goals in three of his last five starts.

41. Jason Blake, LW, NYI: Blake has 25 goals on the season but only 2 in his last 10 games.

42. Dion Phaneuf, D, CGY: Phaneuf is second amongst blueliners in power-play goals (10) and has the most PIMs (68) of any defensemen with better than a plus nine on the season (+16).

43. Daymond Langkow, C, CGY: For the 5th straight year Langkow has eclipsed the 20-goal mark and with 52 points he is only 10 away from his career-high of 62 points.

44. Brendan Shanahan, LW, NYR: Shanahan had a goal and an assist on Monday, his first points in five games.

45. Olli Jokinen, C, FLA: In 25 home games this year this guy has been a dynamo with 17 goals and 17 assists.

46. Slava Kozlov, LW, ATL: Since scoring two goals on Jan. 1, Slava has now gone 10 games without lighting the lamp.

47. Bryan McCabe, D, TOR: McCabe has only 1 goal in his last 17 games, but he does have 23 PIMs in his last two games.

48. Justin Williams, RW, CAR: Williams has taken the next step this season and is bordering on superstardom with 26 goals and 49 points in 52 games, a year after notching 31 goals and 76 points in 82 games.

49. Paul Kariya, LW, NSH: Over his last four games, this mighty mite has 7 points (1g, 6a) for the streaking Predators.

50. Alexander Frolov, LW, LA: For the third straight year Frolov has scored at least 21 goals, and with 25 goals in just 52 games, he already has established a career-high.