So much for a happy ending to the road trip.
The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 6-3 decision to the Seattle Kraken, in a game where they honestly deserved a lot better. Statistically, this was probably the best game of their road trip, where they got some good high-danger looks and pressed an advantage on the statsheet. However, despite all of that, Vancouver simply wasn’t able to deliver on the advantages that they created, allowing an opportunistic Kraken team to grab the lead and not look back.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The game flow paints a picture of the Canucks handily controlling this game. From the numbers, there wasn’t a single period where they were below 65.00 xGF% and 0.91 xGF, with the only blip coming from a 38.71 CF% in the second period. Otherwise, Vancouver had a lead in pretty much every category, with their 3-2 lead in the second period definitely well deserved. However, a statistical lead only goes so far, as by some will or way, the Canucks gave up two quick goals that put them down 4-3 within moments in the second. That lead was only expanded upon by the Kraken in the third, resulting in a very disappointing loss.

Heat Map

The heat map from last night also shows that Vancouver was generally more effective at high-danger chance generation. With an overall 30-19 lead in scoring chances from last night, the Canucks held a 12-7 edge in high-danger chances as well. It’s the first game in a while that they’ve broken double-digits when it comes to those HDCF, which helped them accumulate the xGF advantage that they enjoyed last night. However, despite all of that, it didn’t help them win this contest, which is extra frustrating.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Filip Chytil continued his good run of form, leading the Canucks with a 67.86 CF% on the night. His 1.14 xGF was the 5th-best mark on the team going along with a 72.94 xGF%, on ice for a 10-7 scoring chance lead as well. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he found the back of the net as well, the Czech forward probably being the Canucks’ best forward for the last stretch. Chytil is doing his part to try and drag the Canucks back into the playoff fight, but the rest of the team seems to be lagging behind.
Corsi Chump: Dakota Joshua finds himself trailing the pack in the Corsi department, standing at a 40.00 CF% last night. This can be explained by the fact that he was tasked with matching up against Seattle’s top line, actually doing a pretty good job to finish with a  54.57 xGF%. Joshua was only on ice for 2 high-danger chances against out of a 7 total scoring chances, managing to score a shorthanded goal while being on ice for just 1 5v5 goal against. It’s a good performance, one that would be talked about more if the Canucks had figured out how to win this game.
xGF: Nils Höglander was putting in work last night. Leading the way with an 89.84 xGF%, the Swede recorded the 7th-best xGF on the team with a 1.04 while chipping in a team-best 0.12 xGA. That comes with the territory of not being on ice for a single high-danger chance against, Höglander managing to hold a 5-0 edge in that category and a 9-1 lead in overall scoring chances. It’s a pretty large contribution, and it continues Höglander’s good stretch of games recently. Perhaps he will actually see some top 6 minutes consistently. In terms of raw xGF, it was Tyler Myers’ 1.97 that paced the way for the Canucks, the defenceman on ice for an outstanding 17-4 lead in scoring chances at 5v5.
GSAx: This is a game that Kevin Lankinen would like to have back. Only facing a 1.55 xGF last night and giving up 5 goals against meant that the Finnish netminder posted a -3.45 GSAx, which is huge considering that the Canucks actually outplayed the Kraken in front of him for the majority of the night. Two goals were off middle-danger and high-danger chances each, while the remaining goal was off a low-danger chance. Lankinen hasn’t had a truly rough game for a while, and these things tend to happen no matter how good you are. But unfortunately for Vancouver, it just so happened that they actually put together a good effort in front of Lankinen for once for this to occur.

Statistical Musings

What can you even do at this point?: This is beating a dead horse, but seriously, Elias Pettersson needs to be shut down if he can’t play at his best. Against the Kraken, he had a couple of decent shifts, but a couple of decent shifts aren’t what you pay $11.6 million for annually. Pettersson’s 46.67 CF% was the third-worst on the team, and his 54.91 xGF% was also the third worst on the team in that category. Pettersson was also on ice for 6 high-danger chances against at even strength, which is pretty awful when considering that the Kraken totaled 7 high-danger chances all of last night.
Quinn Hughes’s night: The headlines from late in third period was the fact that Quinn Hughes didn’t see the ice for the final 9 minutes of the game. He wasn’t having a particularly awful night, but at the same time, his numbers didn’t jump off the page like they usually do. It was probably a key indicator of things when Hughes was clipping in with the 4th-worst xGF% of 59.09, unable to separate himself from the rest of the team as he so usually does. Perhaps him going out with injury will be for the best when considering his career, and the long run of this franchise.

As a team

CF% – 56.59% HDCF% – 69.57% xGF% – 65.46%
The Canucks honestly played pretty well. Unfortunately, they didn’t get good goaltending, and their best players seemed to be snakebitten once more. The advanced stats were nice to see, especially considering the run they had been on during this road trip, but the end result was anything but what the Canucks wanted out of this. There’s only so many consolation losses that a team can take before it needs to start winning regardless of process. Can they do so? It’s hard to see a world where they can pull together.
Vancouver returns home to host the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.
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