The Pacific Division doesn't look so bad anymore

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The Calgary Flames are firing on all cylinders right now. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

Mon, Dec 17, 2018

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For a pretty good chunk of the season to date, the hockey world was given a reason to think that the Pacific Division was a bit of a garbage heap.

Reigning Western Conference champions Vegas got off to a putrid start. Heavy favorite San Jose started out real mediocre. The Ducks were hot early, only because of goaltending, then quickly fell apart. The Flames were constrained by Mike Smith 's poor work to start the year. Edmonton, well, was Edmonton. The Coyotes were also the Coyotes. The Kings predictably failed, but failed so badly that they're already talking rebuild. Vancouver continued to be a rebuilding team with some high-end talent, but that was about it.

In short, it looked like the third-place team from the division might finally fulfill the current playoff format's destiny and finish lower in the standings than the sixth-best team in the Central.

Then the last two weeks happened.

Since the start of December, Calgary, Anaheim, Edmonton, San Jose, Vancouver, Vegas, L.A., and Arizona have gone a combined 41-18-5. And almost half of those losses were by the Kings and Coyotes alone. A few of them were also to other Pacific Division teams (i.e. the Oilers losing to Vancouver last night). That means the other six teams have been absolutely incredible, posting half of the 12 highest points percentages in the league in that stretch, all at least .688. And if you're winning 69 percent of the points available to you, you're in great shape.

What's more, because this is the NHL, there's going to be a bit of intra-divisional play, meaning the Pacific has lost even fewer out-of-division games than that record indicates.

So the question is: What do we think of all this? For example, I don't think anyone's actually under the impression that the Flames are the fourth-best team in the league, but that's where they are by points percentage right now, and more to the point it seems like almost everyone on the roster (save for Smith, ha ha ha) is trending up. Even James Neal is making a bit of offense happen in Mikael Backlund 's absence.

If you wanna say the Sharks had more than most people (myself included) to figure out before they got their feet under them, personnel-wise, I'd say you're probably right. But also that if it took them 25 games or so to turn into this kind of juggernaut, the slow-ish start was worth it.

Same with Vegas. Couldn't get a save to start the year but chugged along okayishly enough to make it so that their hot run here has resulted in them sitting 11th in the league in points this morning.

Edmonton's a bit of a mystery still because of the whole "dead cat bounce" thing, but I'm willing to give Ken Hitchcock the benefit of the doubt based on his track record until things really go sideways. Which they might not.

And if those are the four best teams in the division, plus you get Anaheim as long as John Gibson can keep up his .927, then that's as solid a division 1-5 as you're gonna see in hockey.

Which is kinda what a lot of people thought at the beginning of the year, right? "San Jose and Vegas for sure. Maybe Edmonton, maybe Calgary. Maybe-maybe Anaheim." This kind of winning won't last, but if that's what it took to get the Pacific back to where most of us suspected, then that's regression for ya.

Put another way: The Pacific isn't gonna play at a 110-point pace for the rest of the year as a group. But it wasn't gonna play at the 84-point pace it was before December started.

31 Takes

Anaheim Ducks : Daniel Sprong has three goals in five games since getting a chance in Anaheim. Weird how selling low on a guy shooting 6.6 percent for his 42-game career did not hold up for the Pens.

Arizona Coyotes :While I felt like the fact that Antti Raanta maybe being done for the year didn't get enough coverage, I also felt like John Chayka saying , "And we're good with the horrible backups we've got" somehow got even less. Not that these guys were gonna make the playoffs regardless but if this were even a half-decent market every Hockey Man in the league would have been frying him.

Boston Bruins :Sometimes you only score three times on 51 shots .

Buffalo Sabres :By this logic , the entire rosters from 2012 to 2017 should have been suspended for not showing up.

Calgary Flames :Mike Smith being day-to-day is honestly the best thing that could happen to this team. Injury forcing Peters to play the goalie who isn't terrible isn't a thing that should have to happen, but here we are.

Carolina Hurricanes:And with all due respect to Peters, this is honestly the wildest coaching decision I've seen this season. Once you get into round five or six of a shootout in a game where you totally blew a three-goal lead, maybe mix in your best player or the guy your team just picked second overall instead of TWO defensemen. Just a thought.

Chicago Blackhawks:Brutal that the best performance all year for this club is by the mascot absolutely bodying some kid.

Colorado Avalanche:Rantanen and MacKinnon have a combined 108 points this year. Which to me, that's pretty good.

Columbus Blue Jackets:This team is second in the division but only seventh in the conference, so here's a philosophical question for you: Do you think this team is good enough to do anything of note in the postseason? If not, how do you proceed? Stick with the group and hope they figure it out, add talent, make a coaching change, sell talent? So many options, and I don't think any of them are all that great.

Dallas Stars:This is one of like three teams in the league where I'm never surprised by their results because I don't think anyone knows what to make of them.

Detroit Red Wings:Yeah I also love to say I don't look at my stats when I'm an .890 goalie.

Edmonton Oilers: "Peter Chiarelli looking like the resident genius." You really can't even parody the Edmonton media anymore. It's incredible. "You wanted the Oilers to be in contention at Christmas? You can't get much more in contention than that!"

Florida Panthers:Sasha Barkov is legitimately one of the best players no one talks about. That'll probably change now that he beat the Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada or whatever.

Los Angeles Kings:Honestly just trade everyone . Who cares.

Minnesota Wild:Three fights in the first period, and a 2-1 home loss . That's the hockey Brian Burke is on national TV longing for these days. It's way better than no fights and winning 5-4.

Montreal Canadiens:To be fair, playing the Senators makes it really easy to not feel like you're out of any game.

Nashville Predators:Three straight for these guys again . Pretty good.

New Jersey Devils:Sorry, but the best way forward for the Devils is to trade Hall at the deadline. Why give him $12 million or whatever when he's 29 and you're still gonna be on the playoff bubble? Let someone else handle it and get a ton of picks and prospects (hey, maybe a goalie!) for the reigning MVP while he's still the reigning MVP.

New York Islanders:The "may" in this headline is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting.

New York Rangers:If they don't trade Kevin Hayes that's gonna be the biggest tease with no follow through since the Duchene deal.

Ottawa Senators:Normally I would scold a team for giving up four goals in the third period of a game they previously led, but: a) It's the Senators, and b) shots were 47-18. What are ya gonna do, y'know?

Philadelphia Flyers:As I write this at 2:31 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, Dave Hakstol is still the coach of the Flyers and to be honest that's very surprising to me.

Pittsburgh Penguins:One thing I love getting on a line that has a combined four goals in the last two games, both of which were wins, about? Not playing defense .

San Jose Sharks :Is the bar too high ? They have one loss in December.

St. Louis Blues:Look if you're in the middle of a big downward spiral and everyone is for sale, one thing you GOTTA do is extend Robert Bortuzzo for three years.

Tampa Bay Lightning:I would definitely argue that this is probably the best team in Lightning history.

Toronto Maple Leafs:It's actually funny to me that the Leafs lost to the Panthers. I'm not mad at all. I'm laughing about it. And in fact, I've never been mad. For the record, the last time Wendel Clark — I didn't put an E on the end there, okay, old guys? — played an NHL game, Auston Matthews was still four months away from being out of his Terrible Twos.

Vancouver Canucks:Yeah honestly why not kick the tires on Burakovsky. That'd be a nice add, I think.

Vegas Golden Knights:That Erik Haula injury like a month and a half ago was "atypical" for the sport. He's still out indefinitely. Brutal.

Washington Capitals:This Ovechkin kid, think he's got a future in the sport. I take back what I said the other day: If he can score 10 goals every six games for the rest of his career, he'll pass Gretzky with ease.

Winnipeg Jets:I could really handle the Jets-Bolts matchup being a Cup Final.

Gold Star Award

Alex Ovechkin has 17 goals in his last 14 games. Come on, dude.

Minus of the Weekend

The best part about going off on the Panthers for being a nothing franchise is that they've been to a Cup Final more recently than the Leafs have.

Play of the Weekend

Boy these guys can make it look easy sometimes, eh?

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User "LetsGoBooze" doesn't seem to understand how rebuilds work.

Tarasenko and Parayko   for   Draisaitl and Bouchard + Kassian (Cap Dump)

Signoff

Donuts, I got donuts, I g…. hey I know you.

—

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here .

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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