Remember when the Pacific Division was a nightmare for the Canucks? It boasted the perennial powerhouse Los Angeles Kings, the regular season champion San Jose Sharks, and aggravatingly talented Anaheim Ducks, a veritable murderer’s row down the California coast.
When the Kings and Sharks finally faltered last season, the Ducks soared to new heights and the Calgary Flames came out of nowhere to not only make the playoffs but knock the Canucks out in the first round. They looked poised to be a new powerhouse, while the Edmonton Oilers added a generational talent in Connor McDavid and were looking to make some noise.
What happened?
Every other division has a couple dominant forces -- heck, every team in the Central Division apart from the Colorado Avalanche has 10+ points and a positive goal differential -- but the Pacific Division looks oddly lifeless.
The Ducks have scored just six goals in seven games so far this season. Six! Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Ryan Kesler have no goals and just a measly single assist each.
The Flames are flickering, bleeding goals against with neither Jonas Hiller nor Karri Ramo seeming capable of seizing the starting job. They’ve given up the most goals in the Western Conference and it’s starting to look like some of their success last season was illusory.
The Oilers may have McDavid, but their defence is still about as solid as wet toilet paper, making life difficult for their shiny new goaltender, Cam Talbot.
The Kings are first in the division, but are only 5-3-0 and have been out-scored 17-16 so far this season. The Canucks saw firsthand how messy the Kings look, though they’ve gotten their act together and won five straight since then. Still, they’ve eked out three one-goal wins and gave up 40 shots in each of the games they won by more than one goal.
Only three of the teams in the Pacific Division have positive goal differentials: the Canucks, Coyotes, and Sharks. They are +3, +4, and +5, respectively, and none of the three should strike anyone as a heavyweight.
The Canucks have been unable to hold onto leads, the Coyotes are depending heavily on rookies Max Domi and Anthony Duclair for their offence, and the Sharks...well, who knows if the Sharks are for real or not, but they did lose Logan Couture to a broken leg, which won’t help.
None of these teams looks like a contender, but three of them are guaranteed to make the playoffs. One of them could certainly be the Canucks, because, while they may not be good, apparently neither is the rest of their division.
Here’s the caveat: it’s early and things can change awfully quickly.
The Kings are still one of the top puck possession teams in the league, second only to the St. Louis Blues in score-adjusted corsi*. Their 5-game winning streak could be a sign of things to come.
The Sharks look completely legitimate, recovered from last year's slide, with a respectable positive score-adjusted corsi and middle-of-the-pack shooting and save percentages which suggest they haven't been getting particularly lucky in putting together their current record.
Meanwhile, both the Ducks and Flames have been thoroughly unlucky so far this season. They both have have extremely low PDOs at 950 and 945 respectively, albeit for different reasons. The Ducks’ shooting percentage is abysmally low, which won’t last, while the Flames are bound to get better goaltending eventually.
That said, the Flames still have awful possession numbers, with the second worst score-adjusted corsi in the league, ahead of only the awful Avalanche. The Oilers aren’t much better, so it’s hard to see them improving much. Meanwhile, the Coyotes and Canucks are both equally mediocre in possession and look like they’ll be thoroughly middle-of-the-road all season.
So, maybe the Pacific Division hasn't changed all that much. are still going strong, even if the standings don't show it yet, while the Albertans are as bad as ever.
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*All statistics courtesy of war-on-ice.comÌý
