It's Tuesday, which means it's Power Rankings time. Our Rankings are put together based on votes from two panels of voters. Their votes are made public each week so you can ridicule and mock and plaster THIS GUY IS A BAD POWER RANKINGS VOTER posters all around your home arena. It's all about accountability (or something) ... and of course, it gives you the opportunity to have an opinion about other people's opinions.

Each panel, consisting of a few willing participants from around our great network of SB Nation hockey blogs, will vote on only their own conference. Since the NHL doesn't put much emphasis on cross-conference play, and since the two conferences are vastly different and usually end up that way come mid-April, we take two polls each week -- one for the East, one for the West.

The votes are then tallied up with a unique algorithm consisting of plus signs and, at the end, an equal sign. It's addition, baby. Before we get onto this week's Rankings, let's meet the panel.

THE PANEL

Voting on the East...

- Travis Hughes, SBNation.com, Broad Street Hockey

- Peter Raaymakers, Silver Seven

- John Fontana, Raw Charge

- Donny Rivette, Litter Box Cats

- Ben Rothenberg, Broad Street Hockey

Ryan Classic did not vote this week.



And for the West...

- Brad Gardner, Defending Big D

- Dirk Hoag, On the Forecheck

- Bryan Reynolds, Hockey Wilderness

- Derek Zona, SBNation.com, The Copper & Blue

- Casey Richey, Winging It In Motown

- Matt Wagner, The Cannon

And now, the reason you're here.

EASTERN CONFERENCE



WESTERN CONFERENCE