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The Statsies: Aatu Räty leads Canucks in CF% in blowout loss to Penguins
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Photo credit: © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Michael Liu
Oct 22, 2025, 13:23 EDT
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That certainly escalated quickly.
The Vancouver Canucks got the wheels blown off their win streak, dropping a 5-1 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sometimes, all it takes is a rough stretch to bury a team, and that was exactly what happened in the second period. Some grace should be given, considering the state of the team and the injuries that they’re dealing with. At the same time, some questionable deployment decisions should be held accountable.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

While the Canucks were able to get off to a quick lead, the rest of the first was pretty uneventful. It was a near 50/50 split when it came to the Corsi battle, and while Vancouver did have a 68.58 xGF% share at 5v5 play, that was coming off a raw 0.5-0.23 xGF advantage. Not the most exciting of times, with the teams splitting a 6-6 tilt in scoring chances and a 2-2 draw in high-danger chances.
However, the second period was all Pens, and it was more than enough to bury the Canucks. The home side dominated possession to the tune of 62.22 CF%, translating that to a 19-8 lead in scoring chances and 8-4 advantage in high-danger chances. The raw xGF at 5v5 was 1.82-0.80 in favour of the Penguins, and it was no wonder they were able to capitalize. Granted, they were also helped out by a rough outing from Kevin Lankinen, but we’ll get to that.

Heat Map

The heat map isn’t the worst thing in the entire world. Vancouver wasn’t that far behind in overall scoring chances (27-24) or high-danger chances (12-9), which gave Pittsburgh a slightly larger hot spot but nothing too extreme. It’s some solace in a game where they lost 5-1 that the chances weren’t too tilted in the opposition’s favour. At the same time, though, it’s been a hallmark of this season for the Canucks to be outchanced consistently, and that has got to change.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Aatu Räty led all Canucks last night with a 70.37 CF%, which is definitely a good thing considering that he saw a big skew of his deployment coming outside of the offensive zone. The Finn translated his CF% into the third-best xGF% on the team with a 60.13. Räty was one of only four Canucks to finish with a positive difference in high-danger chances as well. Pretty good numbers, especially from a bottom-six forward, a bright spot in an otherwise rough contest.
Corsi Chump: Drew O’Connor suffered against his old team, putting up a team-low 32.26 CF%. DOC posted the second-worst xGF% on the team with a 19.09, being on ice for the fourth-worst xGA of 0.96. That came with a 4-11 deficit in scoring chances and a 1-5 hole in high-danger chances. Obviously, not all of this rests on O’Connor’s shoulders, but it was clear that he was not a good fit beside Nils Aman and Joe LaBate.
xGF: Leading the way in xGF% was a surprising figure, as Pierre-Olivier Joseph recorded a 64.32 xGF%. The defender drew into the lineup and kept things pretty lowkey, which was needed in a game where Vancouver just couldn’t get much going. Joseph broke even at 5-5 scoring chances and 2-2 high-danger chances, deployed primarily against Pittsburgh’s bottom-six. In terms of raw xGF, Linus Karlsson and Max Sasson tied with 0.94, the Abby line supplying well above their weight in terms of chances generated. Great things for them – not so great things for the Canucks if their bottom-six is leading the expected goals tallies.
GSAx: This was a tough game all around, as Lankinen couldn’t bail the Canucks out when the pressure got turned up last night. The Pens racked up 4.05 xGF last night, meaning that the five goals that Lankinen gave up resulted in a -0.95 GSAx. It wasn’t just the negative goals saved, too; it was the quality of chances that he gave up. Four goals of the five came off of middle-danger chances, ones that don’t have as high a probability of converting into goals. That naturally dragged his numbers down, along with the sheer number of goals that he gave up.

Statistical Musings

Why is the first line not getting first line minutes?: There’s already been plenty of discourse about this, but against the Penguins, the DeBrusk-Pettersson-Garland line didn’t see much ice at all. In fact, they ranked third amongst all forward lines when it came to total amount of ice time at 5v5 play. Their numbers weren’t the most impressive thing in the world, finishing with the third-best xGF% without a single high-danger chance to their names. But, given that they didn’t have a lot of time to get into a groove, it’s hard to really say that they were underperforming. They also saw some really weird deployment, with only 37.50% of their faceoff starts coming in the offensive zone. Not only did this line not see the amount of ice-time that one would expect with being the top line, but it was also not put into a position to succeed.
Big effort from Hronek: One of the things that might fly under the radar was how good Filip Hronek was last night. Playing heavy minutes with Quinn Hughes, his xGF% of 59.01 ranked him fourth on the entire team, behind PO Joseph, but playing against higher quality competition. His efforts were noticed, especially when looking at Hughes’ numbers with and without his usual partner. Hughes-Hronek put up 53.85 CF% and 48.11 xGF% together, with Hughes’ numbers dropping down to 53.33 CF% and 38.34 xGF% without the Czech.

As a team

CF% – 51.85% HDCF% – 40.00% xGF% – 45.76%
It’s been a challenging road trip, and with the sheer amount of damage that this lineup has suffered, a loss isn’t the end of the world. Of course, the manner in which they lost was not great, and the Canucks still look like they aren’t capable of playing a full 60. There are a lot of commonalities and trends through this opening part of the season, and it still seems like this team is trying to figure it out. It’s early, but one hopes the Canucks can make the necessary adjustments much quicker than they are.
Vancouver closes out their road trip tomorrow, taking on the Nashville Predators.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com
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