Week 17 Power Rankings - back up they go

TSN.ca - up 1 to 13
Hart: Pascal Leclaire Norris: Ron Hainsey Selke: Michael Peca Calder: Curtis Glencross Underachiever: David Vyborny Overachiever: Nikolai Zherdev Key Injuries: C Sergei Fedorov (concussion).

Yahoo.com - up 2 to 17
On pace for 90 points, the Blue Jackets are on the fringe of the playoff chase this late in a season for the first time. The recent injury bug has improved somewhat, which helps, but Columbus must survive a tough stretch of playing 10 of 13 games on the road from Feb. 7-March 4 to remain in contention.

CBC.ca - up 3 to 13
Two big wins before the break.

ESPN.com - stays put at 19
How will this team, and its fans, rebound from losing local favorite and tough guy Jody Shelley (who was traded to the Sharks this week)?

FoxSports.com - up 2 to 17
(.549) Stellar goaltending and special teams helped the Blue Jackets climb two places in the rankings. Pascal Leclaire stopped 61 of the 63 shots he faced in Week 17, including all 30 attempts he faced in a 1-0 win over the Blackhawks. The Columbus penalty-killing units were also superb last week, not allowing any power play goals to the opposition in 12 chances.

CBSSports.com - up 6 to 15
Pascal Leclaire will get Vezina votes in goal and Rick Nash has been a human highlight reel all season, but the Jackets are one of the league's surprise playoff contenders because they've bought into coach Ken Hitchcock's system and made other teams realize they can't take a night off against them.

THN.com - stays put at 19
With all due respect to Eric Staal, can anybody explain how Rick Nash didn’t win the car at the All-Star Game? Just wondering.

CNNSI.com - awaiting latest rankings

TheFourthPeriod.com - up 7 to 13
If you didn't see Rick Nash's amazing goal on Thursday night, go find the highlight and watch it over and over and over.

Average Score: 15.75 (last week 18.00)

Wes Goldstein of CBSSports.com must be going soft on us, either that or he's finally coming around the Jackets -- he moved us up 6 spots this week.

The low ranking award goes to THN.com and ESPN.com this week -- both have us at 19.

3 sites have us tied for the highest with TSN.ca, CBC.ca and new to the rankings this week -- TheFourthPeriod.com -- all have us ranked 13th.

The Jackets have 3 games this week. They've already lost 1 to Phoenix and things don't get any easier with Nashville tonight at Nashville and Minnesota at home on Saturday. Jackets will need to win both to keep climbing the ranks.

-LTL