The Pacific Division is the only division in the NHL with four teams that have 41+ points and/or a points percentage above .600. Vegas, Edmonton, LA, and Vancouver are the four, while Calgary is still surprisingly in the mix with 39 points and a .574P%.

The NHL resumes tonight with eight games, including Vegas in San Jose, while the Edmonton Oilers resume play tomorrow afternoon in Los Angeles. It will be the first of four meetings between the Kings and Oilers over the final 48 games, as they, along with Vegas and Vancouver, will battle for home-ice advantage in the Pacific Division.

Here’s how the standings look today:

Vegas has a five-point lead over Edmonton, and because they have six more regulation wins, it is really like a six-point lead. The Oilers need to continue to play well if they hope to finish first in their division for the first time since 1987. Edmonton started 0-3 and finished October 5-5-1. Since November 1, they’ve played great. However, they didn’t gain any ground on Vegas.

Since November, the Pacific Division has been home to five of the top 15 teams, including Vegas and Edmonton, which have remained in first and second place. Not much has changed since the start of December.

Vegas and Edmonton ranked 1-2 in December, and the Pacific Division still has five of the top 16 teams. Vancouver is tied with Toronto in P% at .583, but they rank the ties alphabetically, so they weren’t on my screen, but trust me they are tied with Toronto. The Pacific Division is the only division with five teams in the top 16 in the league all season, as well as from the start of November and the start of December respectively. It should be a great race, so let’s look at the remaining schedule.

All five teams have 48 games remaining. LA has the most home games (28), while Edmonton (21) has the fewest. All of them have eight sets of back-to-back games, except Vancouver, which has six.

Now, let’s look at who they play. We’ll start with divisional games.

Edmont0n and Calgary play the most divisional opponents, 19, while Vegas has 12. The Oilers have 11 games remaining v. Seattle, Anaheim and San Jose, while Vegas only has three. Calgary also has 11 games vs. the three bottom feeders.

Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Oilers have been monsters against Anaheim, San Jose, and Seattle. They are 7-1 against each franchise, including current winning streaks of seven games (ANA), six games (SEA), and four games (SJ). There is no reason the Oilers shouldn’t fare quite well in the remaining 11 games against them this season.

Here are their remaining games against the Central division:

Vegas plays the fewest games (6) against the top four teams, while Vancouver has the most (10). Vegas also has six games against the two weakest teams (CHI and NSH), while EDM, LA, VAN, and CGY have two or three.

Here are their matchups vs. the Atlantic division.

It is odd how Ottawa has 15 of their 16 games vs. the Pacific Division already. They have one home game vs. San Jose remaining on their schedule. The Senators have played as many games v. the Pacific division as they have the entire Eastern Conference thus far.

LA has the toughest quality of competition vs. the Atlantic Division facing Florida and Tampa twice.

And lastly, the games vs. the Metro division.

Vegas won’t be part of the Alex Ovechkin record chase. Ovechkin needs 26 goals to tie Wayne Gretzky for the most all-time. Ovie had 15 goals in 18 games before getting injured. He missed 16 games but will return to the lineup tomorrow in Toronto. It is unlikely he catches Gretzky or passes him in a game involving the Oilers, Canucks or Flames. If he remains healthy, Ovechkin will face Vancouver in his 7th and 15th games after Christmas while facing the Oilers in games #13 and #23, the Flames in games #16 and #24 and the Kings in game #32. If he remains on his early season pace (15 goals in 18 games), then he would actually score his 27th goal vs. Gretzky’s former team, the LA Kings. That would be an unreal pace for Ovechkin, but the way he started the season, we can’t completely rule it out. Either way, the excitement surrounding Ovechkin’s record chase will make those head-to-head meetings a bit more exciting for the players and fans.

Vegas has the most games against the Metro but the fewest against the top three clubs, which gives them another slight scheduling advantage.

It will be difficult, but far from impossible, for the Oilers to catch Vegas. Both teams have played great since the start of November, and we’ll see if both can pick up their strong play coming out of the Christmas break. We will have a much better sense of the Oilers’ chances to win the division on January 19th. The Oilers play in LA tomorrow and Anaheim on Sunday, then are home to Utah on New Year’s Eve. Then the most challenging part of their schedule occurs between January 3rd to the 18th.

They play nine games in 16 days, and seven are on the road. They host Anaheim on the 3rd, then play in Seattle (4th), Boston (7th), Pittsburgh (9th), Chicago (11th), home to LA on the 13th, then in Minnesota (15th), Colorado (16th) and Vancouver (18th). It is a rough schedule with loads of travel.

Meanwhile, Vegas’ schedule over the next three weeks will be easier. They are in San Jose tonight, then home to Calgary (29th), Montreal (31st), Philadelphia (Jan 2nd), Buffalo (4th), in San Jose (7th), back home v. the Islanders (9th), Rangers (11th) and Minnesota (12th). Then they are in Nashville (14th), Carolina (17th) and Chicago (18th).

Ten of Vegas next 12 games are against teams currently out of the playoffs while the Oilers play seven playoff teams over their next 12 with a lot of travel. If the Oilers remain close to Vegas after these 12 games, then first place will be a legitimate possibility.

We had another amazingly successful Month of Giving. We raised just over $142,000 for various charities. Thank you so much. In the 14 years of Month of Giving we have now raised $1,548,189. Incredible. Thank you very much to all sponsors who donate amazing packages, to those who bid and to those who make donations on our Pyramid of Giving and Christmas Challenge days.

I hope you had an amazing Christmas.

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