Is the NHL's Pacific Division still up for grabs?

With the NHL taking a mandatory break for the Christmas holiday, it's a good point in the season to pause and evaluate where teams stand in their divisions and gauge how the competition might shake out heading into the latter half of the regular season.

That's easier said than done when it comes to the Pacific Division, which has been a jumble of madness since the season opened back in October.

It begs the question: Is there a clear-cut leader in this pack? Or is the West Coast still up for grabs?

Let's start with the bottom rung of the ladder, where the Anaheim Ducks have mysteriously been dwelling all season. They head into the holiday break without scoring more than two goals a game in the month of December and averaging a league-low 1.85 goals per game on the season. Breaking out of this scoring funk would be the right medicine for an Anaheim team that was favored to return to the playoffs before the 2015-16 campaign opened. Plus, the teams just above them in the standings aren't too far out of reach. Then again, if the Ducks haven't broken out of their scoring drought by now, will they ever?

The cluster of teams above them is just as much of a mystery. The Edmonton Oilers show bursts of greatness but still haven't found their identity yet — with or without Connor McDavid. The Calgary Flames have taken a surprising dip after being last season's Western Conference sleeper team, and while they head into the break having won three of their last five, it's still up in the air how well they fare against the league's tougher competition, such as the red-hot Dallas Stars — whom they beat 3-1 — or the Detroit Red Wings — whom they lost to 4-2.

There are critics out there who are ready to write off the Arizona Coyotes, but they continue to go on hot streaks that make them look like a confident enough club to jump up the standings. Arizona's schedule through January is a mixed bag of both tough — the Chicago Blackhawks — and lackluster competition — the Winnipeg Jets. If they are able to string a couple solid wins together, they could easily jockey with the Vancouver Canucks for the third-place spot in the Pacific.

Then there are the Canucks, who have been uncharacteristically streaky this season. (Almost as streaky as the Sharks, but we'll get to them in a second.) Vancouver struggled early to notch a win on home ice until finally getting the victory that ended the Montreal Canadiens' perfect start. Even after that, they have battled to string consecutive wins together , or they might have stayed in second place in the standings while the San Jose Sharks went into a tailspin.

Really, the word "streaky" almost doesn't apply to the Sharks anymore, given the bizarre couple of months they have played. They have been absolute warriors on the road, going a combined 9-1-1 on their two longest roadies of the season and capping it off with a vicious come-from-behind victory against the division-leading Kings on Tuesday. At home, however, they have been an absolute mess, going winless at SAP Center since a win Nov. 28 over Calgary. Interesting still, they will spend all but three games through the end of January in San Jose. If they continue to struggle at home, will the Kings pull away?

It certainly seemed as if L.A. was doing just that early in December, until they lost four of their last five headed into the break, including a shutout to the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs and a blown lead that turned into a 5-3 loss to San Jose.

The term "there's still a lot of hockey left" might be overused, but there is no better way to describe the Pacific Division up to this point. There is plenty that could happen as the next portion of the season rolls around.