The surest way to work your way to the top of a division in the National Hockey League standings is to take care of business against division rivals. The Vancouver Canucks did a tremendous job of that last season, and it was key to holding off the hard-charging Edmonton Oilers in a sprint to the finish last April.
Overall, the Canucks went 17-9 in divisional showdowns, including a surprising four-game sweep of their head-to-head meetings with the Oilers. Considering the Canucks finished five points up on Edmonton in the final standings, it’s clear to see just how vital those four wins were to lock down the Pacific Crown and earn home-ice advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Now, no one can be willing to predict a repeat of the season series with the Oilers. Partly because the teams only play three times in the regular season. So there certainly won’t be a four-game sweep. But it just seems unlikely that the Canucks will be able to have that same regular season dominance they exerted over Edmonton last season. That’s not to say it can’t happen. It just seems unlikely.
The flip side of that equation is that the Canucks may not struggle as mightily as they did against the Los Angeles Kings. For whatever reason, the Canucks just didn’t bring their best stuff against the Kings, winning only once in four tries and getting outscored 15-8. To make matters worse, the Canucks never managed to play with the lead. Their only win – a 2-1 victory – came on a delayed power play goal in overtime that capped a comeback from a 1-0 deficit.
On the season, the Canucks feasted on the Oilers (4-0), Anaheim (3-0), Calgary and San Jose (3-1 apiece). Add those games up, and that’s a cumulative record of 13-2 against those four opponents.
The Canucks sawed off their four-game season series with the Vegas Golden Knights (2-2) and had their struggles with Seattle (1-2) and LA (1-3).
In total, more than a third of the Canucks’ 50 wins on the season came within their division, and more than 30% of their total points accrued last year came against Pacific opponents.
If the Canucks are going to compete for the Pacific Division title again, they will likely need a record close to the one they posted last season, both overall and in the proverbial four-point contests against fellow Pacific residents.
Working in the Canucks favour is the fact that of their 26 divisional games this coming season, only three are against Edmonton, and only three are against Los Angeles. Otherwise, they play the other five teams in the division four times apiece. That means four games each against San Jose and Anaheim, along with four games against the Calgary Flames. They also face Vegas and Seattle on four occasions.
For the Canucks to post a divisional record similar to last year’s, they will need to take care of the Sharks, Ducks and Flames without much difficulty. If they can go 10-2 in those games, they should set themselves up to have success within the Pacific. From there, they’d simply have to go .500 against the remaining four opponents, and they’d once again be 17-9.
Winnipeg was the only team in the league last season to win 20 games within its division (20-5-1). So it can be done. But that feels like a big ask of the Canucks to rattle off 20 victories in a division that includes the Oilers, Golden Knights, Kings and Kraken.
Edmonton was the only team in the Pacific with a better intra-divisional record than the Canucks. Remarkably, the Oilers were 18-8, meaning they went 18-4 against everyone other than Vancouver.
The early guess here is that the Canucks will go 15-10-1 in their 26 games against Pacific opponents this coming season. That’s a slight drop from last year’s pace but one that should keep them in the hunt to repeat as division champions.
