Pulled it out in the end.

The Vancouver Canucks didn’t look up to the races for a good long while, but managed to pull out a big 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. It’s been an up-and-down stretch for this team, a myriad of injuries exacerbating many of the problems throughout the lineup. Thankfully, the Pacific Division isn’t exactly chock full of contenders, and the Canucks still remain in the mix amongst the top teams somehow.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

The first two periods were lackadaisical at best on the Canucks’ end. Vancouver never broke 50.00 CF% in the first or second, while their xGF% share remained below 35.00 xGF% in the same time frame. It wasn’t as if both teams weren’t generating chances either – the raw xGF stood at 2.32-1.05 for the Blue Jackets in the opening two frames, the visitors also doubling up with a 12-6 edge in high-danger chances. It was probably a bit fortunate for the Canucks to be able to escape with a tie by the end of the second.

However, coming out for the third, Vancouver flipped a switch. They dominated Columbus in the final frame to the point where the advanced stats hole they had dug themselves into was clawed back to even by the end of the game. The Canucks held a 60.00 CF% share with a massive 82.79 xGF% at 5v5 play, outchancing the Blue Jackets 11-1 with an 8-1 high-danger chance lead. It was pretty much everything that one could’ve asked for in 20 minutes, and was enough to see the Canucks to victory.

The heat map finished off pretty even between both teams at 5v5 play. Thanks to that third period surge in scoring chances, Vancouver finished the game with a 24-19 edge in overall chances and just slightly edged out their opposition with 14-13 high-danger chances. The Canucks did a very good job converting their high-danger chances as well, with 3 of their 4 goals coming right from in tight. Those are the chances with the highest expected goals, being the ones of with the highest probability of converting into actual goals. Thankfully, the Canucks were able to do it this time and avoid a repeat of the Blackhawks game.

Corsi Champ: Conor Garland was a man on a mission last night. Leading the team with a 64.52 CF%, the winger was driving play throughout the night, creating chances in bunches before capitalizing on the 3-2 tally in the third. Garland recorded the 4th-best raw xGF of 1.61 on the night to go with the 3rd-best xGF% of 72.95, on ice for a 10-5 lead in overall scoring chances and a 9-4 advantage in high-danger chances. Suffice it to say that his impact was more than positive throughout the contest.

Corsi Chump: Arshdeep Bains brought up the rear in the Corsi department with some very limited minutes, posting a 28.57 CF% in just 6:01 5v5 TOI. It wasn’t for no reason, as Bains was on ice for 0 shots for and 7 shots against, resulting in the third-worst xGF% on the team with a 12.09. There weren’t a lot of good things to note from his game, and the limited deployment makes sense given the lack of positive impact he was making.

xGF: This one is shared between the Canucks’ first defensive pairing. Filip Hronek led the Canucks in xGF% with a 75.99, on ice for a 15-2 scoring chance lead and a big 8-2 high-danger chance edge as well. Those look impressive until looking at the team’s leader in raw xGF, Quinn Hughes. The Canucks captain racked up 2.33 xGF off 21-7 scoring chances and a 12-4 edge in high-danger chances. These two were absolutely great last night and provided plenty of punch from the back end to spur Vancouver’s offence onwards.

GSAx: It’s been a whole thing with Thatcher Demko recently, but thankfully Kevin Lankinen stepped up to the plate to deliver an excellent performance. With Vancouver very much not looking up to the task in the first two periods, Lankinen was more than solid to post a 1.56 GSAx, facing 4.56 xGF from Columbus. Two of the three goals that he gave up were from high-danger chances, with the remaining one coming from a low-danger chance. All in all, Lankinen did more than enough for the Canucks to win this one, managing to steal quite a lot of expected goals away from his opposition.

Finding a fit: The forward lines in the top 9 were thrown into a bit of a blender again, as for this contest Drew O’Connor – Aatu Raty – Jake DeBrusk formed a line together. Playing the second-most amount of minutes at 5v5 action, this combo tallied some of the best offensive metrics the Canucks had to offer in their forward corps. DOC-Raty-DeBrusk came in second with a 0.9 xGF (the first line of Kane-Pettersson-Garland produced a big 1.37 xGF), and managed to finish with a team-best 79.06 xGF%. They held an 8-1 edge in scoring chances and minimized the impact that Columbus made against them. It’s a pretty impressive performance by three forwards who haven’t made too much noise to start the season – but better late than never.

Duality of a third line: The advanced stats were not the kindest to Kiefer Sherwood – Lukas Reichel – Brock Boeser’s line. They recorded the team’s lowest CF% at 43.75 and only managed a measly 18.69 xGF% share, which was also a team-worst. This line’s raw xGF of 0.11 was ever so slightly better than the Abby Line’s 0.08 xGF, with the only difference being that Sherwood-Reichel-Boeser played twice the amount of minutes. It’s no surprise that they were out there for a goal against, but also shows that high-end talent shouldn’t be counted out, especially when the game is on the line.

For a team that has struggled so much to perform in the third period, the Canucks put together the best final frame they have all season to help steer this game to a win. Would it have been nice to see a full 60 minute effort? Probably. But the result was the most important bit, the win a big one for the Canucks to stay afloat this season. The patchwork lineup somehow manages to live to fight another day.

Vancouver is right back in action tonight, squaring off against the red-hot Colorado Avalanche.