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The top four playoff teams (the Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks) are a combined 6-13-3, and the Sharks and Lightning haven't won in their last eight combined games. Meanwhile, the bottom four from last season's standings (the Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers and New York Islanders) are 13-6-1.

Last season's bottom four teams are ranked ahead of the Stanley Cup champion Bruins in the first edition of USA TODAY's NHL power rankings, and all but the Oilers lead the runner-up Canucks. The Washington Capitals are No.1, followed closely by the Detroit Red Wings.

"We signed a lot of NHL-caliber players in their mid- to late-twenties who had had success in other places," Panthers general manager Dale Tallon said. "We added depth to our roster, but what you don't know is how it will come together."

The Panthers have come together well enough to be ranked second in the NHL in power-play proficiency, a surprising climb, considering they ranked last in 2010-11.

"We have two units that are pretty good," Tallon said. "Before, we had three pieces, but we didn't have five. Now we can put 10 guys, and we have options on the back end. We have some guys that are creative with (Stephen) Weiss, (Kris) Versteeg and (Tomas) Fleischmann."

Of last season's four bottom teams, the Avalanche are ranked highest, at No.6. "If you look at last year, they were pretty decent the first half of the year," NHL Network analyst Craig Button said. "Then they got some issues, and the wheels fell off."

This season, their goaltending (Semyon Varlamov and Jean-Sebastien Giguere) has improved, their defense is bigger and they have demonstrated some mental toughness to win five consecutive road games.

"If you are starting with a center ice of (Matt) Duchene, (Paul) Stastny and (Ryan) O'Reilly — that's a pretty good one-two-three," Button said.

About the power rankings

The power rankings are voted on by six USA TODAY staffers —Kevin Allen, Mike Brehm, Gary Graves, Mark Hayes, Chad Leistikow and Brad Windsor — plus Winnipeg Free Press reporter Tim Campbell, Windsor (Ontario) Star columnist Bob Duff, Fox Sports analyst/SI.com columnist Darren Eliot, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Rob Rossi, Detroit Free Press reporter Helene St. James and Greg Wyshynski, editor of Yahoo! Sports' Puck Daddy blog. First-place teams get 30 points down to one point for a 30th-place team. Players get five points for a first-place vote down to one point for a fifth-place vote. Voting occurs every two weeks.