Vegas, Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim and Arizona came out of their bye weeks, while Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver are set to head into a week off. The Flames have rocketed up the standings and the Oilers managed to keep themselves somewhat relevant. 

The Golden Knights were on their bye week last week and played just one game, which was a Saturday night overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Oddly enough, the Oilers, despite their terrible season, are the only team in the league who’s beaten the Golden Knights twice this year. Vegas will now head on a four-game swing through the Southeastern United States.

The Flames are rolling right now. They won all four games they played last week, sweeping a four-game road trip through Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Carolina. With three wins last week on top of this week’s sweep, the Flames are now on a seven-game winning streak, far and away their longest of the season. Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Michael Ferland have led the way, combining for nine goals in the team’s last five games.

The Kings came out of their bye week on Saturday with a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks and now find themselves on a three-game losing streak. Since they had an eight-game streak back in early December, the Kings have had a mediocre run with just four wins in their last 12 games. As a result, their once very large lead in the playoff race has shrunk to just three points.

The Sharks came out of their bye week with a 6-5 overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes. Amazingly, it was the first time all season San Jose managed to score six goals in a game. They’ve managed to close the gap between them and the Kings to just three points, and the Sharks have two games in hand.

The Ducks came out of their bye week with a 4-2 win over Los Angeles and continue to edge closer to a playoff spot. They’ll play in Colorado on Monday, but after that, Anaheim has five games in a row at home, which is a prime opportunity for them to make a leap up the standings.

Just as Oilers fans were ready to give up on the season, the team went and gave everyone a slight, ever so tiny reason for hope. The Oilers lost 2-1 to Nashville, but then won back-to-back games in Arizona and Vegas before heading into their bye week. They came back from 2-0 down to beat the Coyotes 4-2, and they edged out the weirdly-good Golden Knights 3-2 in overtime. There’s a lot of climbing to do, but the Oilers have a five-game homestand against some bad teams coming up.

The Canucks had a 2-2 week, getting dropped by the Habs and Capitals then picking up wins in Columbus and Minnesota. They’ll head on their bye week and then pick things up in Edmonton and Winnipeg before starting a five-game homestand.

The Coyotes came out of their bye week just as bad as they went into it. Arizona blew a 2-0 lead to lose 4-2 to the Oilers and then they got dropped 6-5 in overtime by the Sharks the following night. The countdown for them being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs is on.