We are one month away from the final day of the 2024-25 NHL season.

The Edmonton Oilers are in second place in the Pacific Division standings, four points behind the Vegas Golden Knights and only one point up on the Los Angeles Kings.

What will it take for the Oilers to overtake the Golden Knights and win their first division banner since 1986-87? Also, what will it take for Edmonton to hold off the Kings and ensure they have home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs?

Let’s go through what each of the three teams has left on tap.

The Golden Knights are on pace to win their fifth Pacific Division crown in their eighth season since entering the NHL. After finishing eighth in the Western Conference last season and falling to the Dallas Stars in the first round of the playoffs, getting home-ice advantage through the first two rounds would be a welcomed change for the 2023 Stanley Cup Champs.

Vegas is in control of their own destiny, four points up on Edmonton with the same amount of games remaining and five ahead of Los Angeles with two more games played. Even if the Kings win both of those games in hand, they would need help from the out-of-town scoreboard to catch the Golden Knights.

The most important game on the schedule for the Golden Knights is their April 1 match with the Oilers in Vegas. If they beat Edmonton in regulation time (as they’ve done in two of three meetings this season), it would become very difficult for the Oilers to jump the Golden Knights in the standings.

It won’t be an easy stretch for Vegas in the final month of the season but it won’t be a gauntlet either. They play seven games at home and eight on the road and they don’t have a road trip longer than three games. The Golden Knights have four games against serious contenders and the other 11 are against teams well below them in the standings.

The final month of the Oilers’ season is highlighted by three different four-point games. They have the April 1 game in Vegas that’ll ultimately determine whether the Pacific Division crown is a realistic possibility down the stretch and two games against the Kings (one at home, one on the road) that could determine who has home-ice advantage in the first round.

Beyond those three games with the Golden Knights and Kings, the Oilers also have three games left against two of the top teams in the Central Division. Edmonton hasn’t faced the league-leading Jets since their 6-0 loss on opening night in October and they’ll play Winnipeg twice more in the next month. They’ll also host the Stars one more time in the regular season.

That’s six games against legitimate contenders for the Oilers, leaving nine other games against teams beneath them in the standings. Edmonton has three more games left against the basement-dwelling San Jose Sharks, two against the Seattle Kraken, and one with the Anaheim Ducks. They also have games against the Utah Hockey Club, St. Louis Blues, and Calgary Flames, three teams pushing for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

Like with the Golden Knights, it isn’t a cake walk but it isn’t a gauntlet either. The key for the Oilers is winning their games against Vegas and Los Angeles while also taking care of business against the teams below them in the standings.

The Kings have two games in hand on both the Golden Knights and Oilers but they also have the most difficult schedule remaining of the three teams battling for top spot in the Pacific Division. Los Angeles hasn’t raised a division banner since 1990-91 when they won the Smythe Division and they’ll be in tough to snap that drought this year.

Among the 17 games the Kings have left on their schedule, seven will come against serious contenders and three more will come against middling teams battling for playoff spots. They have five games against the Sharks, Kraken, Ducks, and Blackhawks, but the 12 other games will be against competitive teams.

Since the Kings don’t have a game remaining against the Golden Knights, it’ll be difficult for them to make up the five points needed to catch them in the standings. If they win their two head-to-head games against the Oilers, they’ll be in the driver’s seat when it comes to being the home team in the first round of the playoffs.