VANCOUVER, B.C. – The character assassination of the Pacific Division hit a crescendo on Saturday when the call came from inside the house.
Following the second 0-for-6 single-day donut put up by the division in just three days, Connor McDavid made a headline from the Edmonton locker room.
“Obviously we’re fortunate to play in this division,” McDavid said. “A lot of teams are fortunate to play in this division. It’s a bit of a pillow fight right now.”
In plenty of ways, McDavid isn’t wrong.
In plenty of others–namely those involving the division-leading Anaheim Ducks who open up a three-game divisional road trip through Western Canada on Tuesday in Vancouver–McDavid lacks perspective.
Yes, none of the Pacific Division’s eight teams would currently hold a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, including those Ducks.
Only the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers hold positive goal differentials, plus-3 and plus-1, respectively, and even Anaheim has a minus-7 differential on top. As a group, the division’s combined minus-199 differential would be the worst by a division since the 2001-02 Southeast Division (minus-224).
However, just look at these two last terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days in the Pacific Division.
Last Thursday, all six Pacific teams in play lost with a combined minus-19 goal differential, the second-worst single-day division performance in NHL history.
On Friday, the Ducks went on the road to Utah and beat its potential first-round playoff opponent, 4-1.
Last Saturday, all six Pacific teams in play lost again. Only seven times in NHL history have divisions with six or more teams playing on a single day walked away without a single win, and the Pacific Division did it twice in three days.
On Sunday, the Ducks came home to host Atlantic-leading Buffalo and snapped a seven-game win streak for the league’s hottest team, 6-5 in overtime.
"We want to make sure that we're moving ahead," Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said on Sunday. "I think we helped ourselves by the last two games coming up with points that look like we're in tough spots, and then some of the things that were going on along in our division. So it was, like, okay, we helped ourselves, but one day at a time before we, you know, you don't want to get too excited. We know we have a lot of work to do."
Plenty of pundits have opined that seemingly no one wants to win the Pacific Division, but if that sounds like they’re overlooking the Ducks, it might because they are.
While the rest of the division has tripped over its own feet, Anaheim has answered the call of opportunity.
In the previous seven days, the five non-Anaheim Pacific teams in the playoff shuffle–Vegas, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Jose–combined for a 3-12-2 record taking eight of a possible 34 points (.235 points percentage).
In that same week, the Ducks earned points in all three games, a 2-0-1 record for five of a possible six points (.833 points percentage).
In the previous 14 days, those same five non-Anaheim Pacific teams combined for a 13-19-4 record taking 30 of a possible 72 points (.417 points percentage).
Over that fortnight, the Ducks posted a 4-2-1 record taking nine of a possible 14 points (.643 points percentage).
Entering March 9, Anaheim led the division with 73 points. Vegas was one point back, Edmonton two points back, Seattle six points back, San Jose seven points back and Los Angeles nine points back.
Two weeks later entering Monday, the Ducks led the division with 82 points. The Knights were four points back, the Oilers were five points back, the Kings were nine points back, the Kraken were 11 points back and the Sharks were 12 points back.
So, yes, from McDavid and the Oilers’ perspective, it’s a pillow fight, but the Ducks are starting to see that cloud of feathers shrinking slightly into the rear view.
But okay–in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Anaheim is simply the least inept relative to its Pacific co-horts, right?
Sure, the Ducks are the only team in the division with more wins than total losses, including overtimes and shootouts.
However, look further and you see that maybe Anaheim does deserve its place at the table and away from the morass that is the rest of the division.
The Ducks (23-15-1) are the only Pacific Division team with a positive win-loss record against the Western Conference (23-15-1) and against the Eastern Conference (16-12-3).
Broken down by divisions, Anaheim has a positive win-loss record against each of the other three divisions with Vegas (9-3-3 vs. the Atlantic) and San Jose (9-6-1 vs. the Central) as the only other Pacific Division teams with positive records against another division.
Additionally, the Ducks have already swept the season series with Vegas and won the season series over the Kings and Seattle. Anaheim can take the season series from Edmonton on Saturday and from San Jose on April 1.
Across the full season, the margins are still admittedly a little slim, but the separation is there and growing. This week will determine just how much of a gap there is going into the final stretch of the season.
While the Ducks have a path to farming more points in front of them with the division’s bottom two teams–Vancouver and Calgary–to open this road trip, Edmonton gets a chance to prove how heavy it can swing that pillow on the road at Utah on Tuesday and at Vegas on Thursday.
Edmonton then returns home to host the Ducks in their road trip finale in a Saturday matinee.
Anaheim can’t stand to overlook Vancouver, which shut out the Ducks in Rogers Arena in January, or Calgary, which pushed the Ducks to overtime in January, or risk being dragged back into the fight.
After all, someone has to win this thing.