If you’re a fan of Canadian hockey, then when you woke up on Sunday morning, checked the Pacific Division standings and were met with a sight for sore eyes.
Three western Canadian teams -- Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers -- in that order, 1-2-3 in the Pacific Division standings.
After scratching your head and rubbing your eyes to check if you had truly woken up, you sipped your coffee and wondered, simply, how?
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Calgary Flames
Calgary has found a way to get it done in the third period like no other team in the NHL thus far this season.
Few teams that trail after two periods of play ended up winning after three, yet here are the Flames with a 5-5-1 record when trailing after 40 minutes. That’s right, in 11 of their 15 games this season, the Flames have trailed after two periods of play. While most teams in the NHL might have a win or two in such a scenario, Calgary has five and managed a point out of another to stand atop the Pacific with a 9-5-1 record.
No other team has scored 28 goals in the final frame, either. The next closest is Colorado and Winnipeg, who each have 20.
Calgary has simply made it a point to come out in the third period and take it to other teams, evidenced by their five-goal outburst after trailing the Avalanche 4-1 entering the third on Thursday, and then their three unanswered against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.
The Flames have won four straight now and have a real chance to put an early stranglehold on the division as they embark on a three-game road trip against Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
Calgary isn’t getting the best goaltending at the moment, but they’ve been able to mask it by controlling possession and scoring a pile of goals -- they are tied for first with Colorado with 52 goals scored and are tied for second with 32 of those coming at five-on-five.
Vancouver Canucks
Elias Pettersson is shooting at 40 percent.
That’s an incredible number (and one that’s likely to fall) but the Canucks are certainly enjoying it at the moment.
But he’s proved to be an incredible player thus far, highlighted most recently by his five-point night against the Avalanche on Friday.
Like Calgary, goaltending hasn’t been a specialty but scoring goals has. Vancouver is tied for the third most goals in the NHL at 47, so they, too, are outscoring some of their issues in their own end of the ice.
Vancouver’s possession numbers rank them near the bottom of the league but they’re sixth in the league in overall shooting percentage and 10th in five-on-five shooting percentage. If that well dries up at some point, so too will the wins.
But they are also a team decimated by injury. So who knows. The last thing Vancouver wants is to be in the hunt for a playoff spot, miss it, and get a mid-round pick in the middle of a rebuild.
And man, are the Canucks ever exciting to watch.
Edmonton Oilers
Connor McDavid has 21 points this season. Edmonton has 40 goals.
Where would the Oilers be without McDavid? It’s an intriguing question to explore yet one that doesn’t really matter unless he gets injured. The fact of the matter is they do have McDavid and McJesus is carrying the team.
And while drop off is expected for nearly every other player in the NHL that’s had a great start to the season, McDavid is the exception.
He gets defenseman-type minutes and he cannot be contained.
The good news in Edmonton is that other players have woken up.
Leon Draisaitl is producing, as is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and they’ve buckled down defensively, giving up the fifth-fewest high-danger scoring chances. Edmonton’s overall team save percentage isn’t great, but their combined five-on-five save percentage is seventh in the league operating at .935.
What does this all mean?
In one sense, it doesn’t mean much at all, even if we’re nearing 20 percent completion of the regular season.
That said, the Pacific Division as a whole is quite poor this season. That makes it difficult to predict. And by extension, it also means that every team appears to be in the thick of it (save for Los Angeles at this point).
It also means that there will likely only be three Pacific Division spots up for grabs come April. The Central Division is very good and will likely take the available crossover spot should things stay on the same course.
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Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck