The standings in the Pacific Division seem to change with each passing day. While the Vegas Golden Knights remain on top, the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings have been flip-flopping and are doing everything they can to push them until the end.

Tomas Hertl had the opportunity to secure two points for the Golden Knights against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday on an empty net. Instead, he opted to pass the puck off to Jack Eichel, who didn’t score, and the Sabres went on to score the game-winner with 16 seconds left. After beating Edmonton earlier in the week, Buffalo did the Oilers a favour by beating Vegas in a shootout. That loss was followed up by a 3-0 defeat to the Detroit Red Wings yesterday.

While the Golden Knights still sit atop of the Pacific Division, they haven’t played up to their standard recently. They went 1-1-2 on last weeks road trip with their lone win coming against the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, while slightly slumping, still grabbing an overtime point in two of those losses is beneficial.

Vegas won’t play now until Thursday, which should give them time to regroup ahead of what’ll be an interesting set of games at home.

It was a rocky road trip for Edmonton in New York State, but they managed to balance the ship at the end. After losing the opening two games to the sinking Buffalo Sabres and the injury-riddled New Jersey Devils, they pulled off two wins against the New York Islanders and New York Rangers over the weekend. Leon Draisaitl continued his dominate MVP season extending his point streak to 18 games, which is a season high across the league. Questionable goaltending has plagued the Oilers the majority of the season, but timely saves and better defence kept the goals against to only two in those two wins.

They still hold down second in the Pacific Division on points. However, the LA Kings are creeping up on them now only one point behind and ahead of them on win percentage, with two games in hand. Edmonton returns home for three games this week where currently hold a two-game win streak. Additionally, Kris Knoblauch stated that Mattias Ekholm, who missed the four game road trip, is likely to return against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.

Before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, it felt as though the Pacific Division was a two-horse race between Edmonton and Vegas. The Los Angeles Kings have thrown themselves into that mix too, now, with five wins in a row. One of those wins game against the Golden Knights in what was a 6-5 regulation win. They’re now ahead of the Oilers in win percentage.

Quinton Byfield is a playing a significant role in the Kings recent success. The former 2nd overall pick has goals in six straight games to take his tally to 17 on the season. Warren Foegele and Anze Kopitar are red hot, too, with five points for the Kings captain and four for the former Oiler in five games.

While the offence has found its rhythm, the goaltending has been great for the Kings too. Darcy Kuemper, who didn’t play in the win over Vegas, has only allowed two goals in his last four starts, which has helped him secure a 0.980SV%.