Nobody seems to want to win in the NHL’s Pacific Division
It’s been a tough year for pretty much everybody in the Pacific Division, but regardless of how it shakes out at the end, three teams from the group are heading to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It looks like one will almost certainly be the Anaheim Ducks, who have a four-point lead atop the division, but the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights, seen as top-tier Stanley Cup contenders in October, have their status very much in doubt.
What’s keeping the two former contenders afloat is the fact that San Jose, Los Angeles and Seattle, all of which looked like strong bets to make the playoffs at different points of the season, are struggling to pick up points, and have been for weeks.
Perhaps what’s most striking about the Pacific is the fact that none of its eight teams would be in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference with their point totals, and only the Ducks would even be within seven points of the East’s cutline.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how the Pacific is shaping up to be one of the worst divisions in recent NHL history.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The whole hockey world has known for a while that the Pacific is garbage, but Connor McDavid over the weekend after the Oilers lost to the Lightning, he came out and called it a “pillow fight.” That’s bang on. Nobody seems to want it. Granted, Anaheim’s won back-to-back games, they’re starting to maybe pull away a little bit at the top of that division, but Vegas, four wins in their last 10. Edmonton’s only got five. You heard me mention LA, Seattle and San Jose as teams that have struggled. I thought this first tweet that I found interesting, from Blake on Twitter, he pointed out instances of a division having six teams play on a night and getting zero wins. Hutts, it’s only happened seven times in the history of the NHL. Two of them have been the Pacific Division over the last week. That’s absolutely insane. This perfectly illustrates how historically bad the Pacific is.
Instances of a Division having 6+ teams play and getting 0 wins Pacific (today) Pacific (Thursday) Central (10/29/2022) Atlantic (2/10/2022) Norris (1/30/1982) Smythe (3/21/1981) West (1/27/1974) #NHLStats
Carter Hutton: You know what’s funny is, as a player I look back on stats and certain little numbers where we can cherrypick numbers and find one, but this is a great one. This is one that’s like all-time for me to show everyone how bad the Pacific Division has been, and I think the pillow fight comment was great by Connor McDavid. He went on to elaborate about their team and how good Tampa is and everything that’s gone into it, but I think when I look at this Pacific Division, it’s anyone’s to get in… I think when we think about Vegas and we think about Edmonton, we thought they’d be a little higher up, a little more consistent post-Olympic break. It’s kind of the stretch run where you’ve really got to know who you are.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…