That was a big loss.
The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, coming up just short in their comeback attempt. They probably shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place, playing some decent hockey and earning a nice advantage through the numbers. That being said though, the Habs’ stars stepped up to get their team in front. Vancouver’s stars… well, suffice it to say that the night sky was pretty dark.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The first period was ironically probably the Canucks’ best by the numbers. Finishing the frame with a 62.22 CF% and 65.55 xGF%, the home team really picked it up after going down 2-0. That being said though, the positive momentum tapered off into the second period. The trendlines flattened through the middle frame, with the Canucks’ dropping to a 52.38 CF% and 57.11 xGF%. And in the third, where Vancouver got both of their goals, the stats were at their weakest all night, sitting at 32.35 CF% and 34.74 xGF%. Simply put, Vancouver didn’t have it when it matter the most, despite a strong start.

Heat Map

The heat map paints a pretty generous picture of the scoring chances from last night. Vancouver held an overall 25-21 lead at 5v5 play, but the high-danger chances ever so slightly favoured the Habs at 14-15. It was a very close contest through each period when it came to those HDCF – the first period saw the Canucks hold a 4-3 edge, then an 8-8 split, before the Canadiens saw the third out with a 4-2 lead. Vancouver did do a pretty good job of generating xGF through the first and second periods as well, totalling 2.74 xGF at 5v5 play. Unfortunately, after posting over 1 expected goals in each period, the third saw Vancouver only tally up 0.46 xGF.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Elias Pettersson bounced back from a rougher game statswise to record some of the best numbers on the team last night. His CF% stood at 86.21, an outstanding contribution at 47.08 CF% rel. to team average. For context, the next best player’s CF% rel was only at 33.47. Pettersson was definitely having himself a game, involved in whatever the Canucks generated offensively and managing to strike on the power play. While he was on the ice, Vancouver held a 12-1 shot advantage at 5v5. Unfortunately, the only shot against resulted in a goal against.
Corsi Chump: On the other end of the spectrum, Jake DeBrusk continued his rough form into this game against Montreal. His 33.33 CF% was the team’s worst mark, which also carried over into other categories. DeBrusk posted the team’s worst xGF% at 30.25, while his 0.34 xGF was also a team-low. The winger was on ice for a 1-5 high-danger chance disparity, showing just how ineffective he was at both ends of the ice.
xGF: Pettersson was definitely on one last night. Leading the team in xGF% at 93.35 and posting the third-best xGF of 1.47, the Swede was on ice for a massive 11-2 scoring chance advantage and 8-2 high-danger chance lead as well. That came with a powerplay tally, which was nice to see, and one can only hope that Pettersson can figure out how to produce at 5v5 again. If he keeps on creating these kinds of numbers, the dam surely will break at a certain point – the only thing is trying to do this consistently. In raw xGF, Filip Hronek posted a 1.80 on the night to lead the Canucks, eating up some heavy minutes against the Habs.
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen did enough last night, even if he didn’t steal the game. Facing down 2.73 xGF, he let in three goals for a -0.27 GSAx. Two of the goals were high-danger chances, while one of them came from a low-danger chance. Again, not the best but also not the worst. Vancouver probably needed to actually convert on some chances in front of him and give him a little more run support given that Lankinen was definitely not stealing this game for the Canucks.

Statistical Musings

Third line playing like one: After the last two games of good numbers, the Dakota Joshua – Teddy Blueger – Conor Garland line came back down to earth against the Habs. While they weren’t the worst line on the team (that belonged to DeBrusk-Chytil-Lekkerimaki, who were absolutely brutal), the Joshua-Blueger-Garland trio also didn’t do much against the Habs’ middle 6. Their 33.33 CF% was the second-worst on the team, while giving up a team-high 0.55 xGA to record a 32.89 xGF%. It wasn’t their best effort, which is understandable, but their opposition in this game was also not up to the calibre of opponents they’ve been playing previously.
Deeper into the DeBrusk-Chytil-Lekkerimaki numbers: As mentioned above, the DeBrusk-Chytil-Lekkerimaki line combination was not good, and considering that they weere playing top 6 minutes, it was heavily dissapointing. The trio posted a team-worst in CF% at 23.53, facing down the second-worst xGA at 0.52 while also recording just 0.18 xGF for a 25.65 xGF%. DeBrusk-Chytil-Lekkerimaki didn’t record a single high-danger chance while they were on the ice, which just compounds the offensive struggles this team has had at 5v5.
Where Forbort-Mancini ate: The third pairing was solid in their minutes last night, and that isn’t insignifianct. Derek Forbort and Victor Mancini posted the best share metrics amongst defencemen last night, finishing with a 60.00 CF% and 57.08 xGF%. Obviously, this was not coming in a hard-matchup role against the Habs’ top line which ran rampant all night. But for them to be consistently solid against the rest of the Montreal lineup represents a pretty darn good contribution for a good chunk of the game.

As a team

CF% – 53.62% HDCF% – 51.52% xGF% – 56.97%
The Canucks were decent last night. They started the game out with two strong periods even if the score didn’t necessarily reflect that. However, at a certain point that isn’t good enough. Moral victories are only good for so long. Vancouver needs to find a way to convert, to make things happen, and last night against the Habs, that simply didn’t happen. With the playoff odds taking a huge hit from the result of last night’s contest, it already might be too little, too late for this group.
Vancouver is right back in action, taking on the Calgary Flames tonight in the Saddledome.
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