To say that the 2025-26 season hasn’t got off to the start that the Vancouver Canucks were hoping for would be putting it mildly.

Whether it is the 6-7-0 record, or the dozen or so injuries incurred on the way to that record, most were wanting more out of the team’s first month of play. The only saving grace at this point might be the similarly dismal outlook of the rest of the Pacific Division thus far, which has left the Canucks just two points back of a playoff spot (as of this Monday morning writing), despite their early-season troubles.

That, and some surprisingly positive results at five-on-five play.

It has long been held that five-on-five results are the truest measure of both an individual player’s and a team’s real quality. It is, after all, the default mode of play in hockey, with every other on-ice situation being circumstantial.

Often, when one wants to find out how a high-scoring player is really doing, one takes a look at how much of their production comes from five-on-five, and how much is a result of, say, the power play.

So, when one looks at the 2025-26 Canucks through 13 games, one might be surprised to find that they are still a positive team at five-on-five. As in, they’ve scored 23 goals at five-on-five, and only allowed 21 against.

Now, to be fair, that is just barely keeping their head above water. It’s a +2 goal differential. But it’s still probably better than should reasonably be expected, given how the Canucks have performed in general, and all the difficulties they have faced.

This 52.27% control of five-on-five goals is the 12^th-best rate in the entire NHL at this point, and ahead of some notable contenders like the Vegas Golden Knights (51.16%), Tampa Bay Lightning (51.06%), Dallas Stars (46.67%), New Jersey Devils (46.43%), and especially the Edmonton Oilers (46.00%).

At five-on-five, by the numbers, the Canucks have actually been better than the bulk of the league.

Now here come the caveats.

We will note here that this five-on-five success has only barely dipped in the absence of captain Quinn Hughes, Through four games without Hughes, the Canucks scored six five-on-five goals and allowed seven against, which is still pretty good, all things considered. Injuries haven’t really hampered the trend.

What has got in the way of the Canucks experiencing more on-ice success then? In short, every other on-ice circumstance besides five-on-five play.

The Canucks don’t even have a positive record if we look at even-strength play in general, as opposed to five-on-five. At just even-strength, the Canucks’ goal-differential is 25-to-26. Given what we know about their five-on-five results, that means that the Canucks have scored just two goals in all other even-strength situations, while allowing five against. That applies to both four-on-four play and the three-on-three play of overtime.

But those other even-strength struggles pale in comparison to the calamity that has become the Canucks’ special teams.

As of this writing, the Canucks have the 21^st ranked power play in the league at 16.7%. That’s been a noticeable sore spot all season. But it’s actually a little worse off than that, because the Canucks have only scored seven power play goals while allowing two shorthanded against. That gives the Canucks a “Net PP%” of just 11.9%, which is the seventh-worst in the league.

Their penalty kill, once a strength, is now somehow even worse off. Right now, it sits at 71.1%, which is the seventh-worst rate in the league. They’ve allowed 13 power play goals against and scored just one shorthanded, which bumps their Net PK% up to 73.3% – the eighth-worst rate in the league.

Put it all together, and the results are quite staggering. At five-on-five, a situation thought to provide the purest measure of play, the Canucks have a goal-differential of 23-21.

But in all other situations, they’ve got a goal-differential of 10-20.

Yes, that means that the Canucks are being literally doubled by their opponents in all non-five-on-five situations. Power play, penalty kill, four-on-four, overtime. Name a situation that isn’t five-on-five, and the Canucks have struggled there, both numerically and visibly.

It’s not hard to calculate the impact on the record here. Take that scant +2 advantage the Canucks have built up at five-on-five, and realize that it’s entirely scuttled by their -3 record at all other even-strength situations. Take the miniscule +5 advantage they have on their PP, and realize it is more than doubled by their -12 disadvantage on the PK.

This is a season where the positives have well and truly outweighed the negatives, to the point of fully shoving them off to the side of relevance.

Is there anything positive to be gleaned from this analysis? Perhaps. It is often said, as we mentioned at the outset, that five-on-five play is the most important and truest measures of a team’s ability. That might bode well for these Canucks – especially given the injuries. If they can keep their heads above water at five-on-five with this many missing players, it stands to reason they should be able to do the same all season long.

It also stands to reason that, between the two, special teams play is easier to ‘figure out’ than is five-on-five play. In that, one is the default mode of hockey, and the other arrives in random two-minute microcosms. If we’re imagining a practice scenario, it should be a lot easier to spot-fix the power play and penalty kill than it would be to make serious changes to the team’s five-on-five play.

But fixing is always easier said than done, and the dark side of these numbers tells us that if the Canucks can’t figure out their special teams in the near-ish future, they stand the chance of digging a hole for themselves so deep that no amount of sustained success at five-on-five will be able to pull them out of it.