The ethical tank continues.

The Vancouver Canucks lost 3-2 in overtime against the Boston Bruins. Even though it was a loss on the scoreboard, the game content was much more entertaining, just like the previous outing against the Seattle Kraken. The Canucks played well, got chances, and made things interesting before falling short in the extra frame. That’s a lot better than barely hanging on to victories or playing mind-numbingly boring hockey. Not only is it more fun to watch, but it works out for pretty much all sides for this team.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

As the game flow suggests, much of the contest hung in the balance. Neither team was really able to establish a foothold through the first two periods, trading chances and ebbs in puck possession, resulting in a 2-2 tie going into the third. It was in that final frame that Vancouver surged though, recording a 64.29 CF% and 70.64 xGF%, outchancing Boston to the tune of 15-8 and a further 7-1 high-danger chance lead. Obviously, they didn’t capitalize, which ended up hurting them as the game went to overtime. But how many times have the Canucks not even bothered to play that full 60 minutes and press in the final 20 this season?

It was another heat map where the Canucks had a slight edge. Not often this year, we could say that, in all honesty. The lead in overall scoring chances was a little bit lower than in the Kraken game, sitting at 26-19, but Vancouver doubled up on Boston when it came to high-danger chances at 12-6. That third period pushed the Canucks well ahead of the Bruins in that regard, with the teams even at 5-5 through the first two periods. It was definitely a good effort at both ends of the ice, and the Canucks were able to do it for two games in a row for the first time in what feels like forever.

Corsi Champ: Jake DeBrusk earns the CF% crown with a perfect 100.00 CF% on the night, and gets the tiebreaker amongst his forward line (which we’ll get to) thanks to a 58.73 CF% rel to team average, which was also a team-best. It seems like the healthy scratch to close out the year has definitely sparked something, as he looks like a better fit alongside Elias Pettersson on the Canucks’ first line as of late. The biggest thing now is seeing if he can translate these numbers into some actual point production.

Corsi Chump: It was another rough game for the “second line”, as Max Sasson posted the team’s worst CF% at 23.81%. That translated into other categories, too, as he recorded the worst xGF% on the roster (7.87%), a team-low 0.09 xGF, and the second-worst xGA (1.03), only compounding things here. It just isn’t ideal to produce those kinds of stats, but given the role Sasson is playing and how he’s been forcibly elevated in the lineup, it can at least be understood why he’s been as overmatched as he has.

xGF: DeBrusk finds himself as the winner in this category. Again, he and his linemates tied at 100.00 xGF%, but given that he also posted the team’s best xGF of 1.56, DeBrusk gets the title here. It was an incredibly impressive night for him on the stat sheet, as he was on the ice for a whopping 17 scoring chances with 0 against. And, a large majority of those scoring chances were high-danger, as DeBrusk had an 11-0 edge while he was on ice. Not often does a player or line manage to do something like this, and while you could ask him to find the back of the net or rack up an assist, there’s not much more the winger could’ve done last night.

GSAx: Kevin Lankinen battled hard in this one. The Bruins generated 3.12 xGF last night, meaning the Finn was ever so slightly above even at 0.12 GSAx. The goal distribution was favourable for him, with Boston scoring on two high-danger chances and one middle-danger chance. Again, Lankinen didn’t steal this game for the Canucks and probably got outdueled by Jeremy Swayman, but he was by no means a liability for Vancouver. They just couldn’t get the game into a shootout for him.

Utter Dominance: It is quite wild to see the numbers from the DeBrusk-Pettersson-Karlsson line from last night, and it’s more of a surprise that they didn’t find the back of the net more, given the statistical success that they saw. In 6:57 TOI together, the trio posted an absurd 16-0 CF margin for their 100.00 CF%, meaning that the Bruins quite literally did not get a single shot off against them. The shot margin was 10-0 in favour of the Canucks while they were on the ice together, and they posted a team-best 0.99 xGF and 100.00 xGF%. It wasn’t even close in the expected goals total either, as the next highest raw number after theirs was 0.12. A 12-0 scoring chance advantage and 7-0 high-danger chance lead really goes to show how dominant DeBrusk-Pettersson-Karlsson were as they tallied the Canucks’ only 5v5 goal from last night.

No support: While that line was buzzing, the rest of the Canucks forward group was quiet at best and downright putrid at worst. Case in point: the Evander Kane – Max Sasson – Brock Boeseer line, which got absolutely dismantled by their Boston opposition. It was pretty darn bad as they recorded the worst CF% at 5v5 play (13.33), worst xGF (0.03), worst xGA (0.77), and worst xGF% (3.21). They didn’t manage to generate a single scoring chance of any danger, sitting at 0-8 on the night. If the Canucks could’ve gotten a smidgen more out of these guys, perhaps it wouldn’t be a shootout loss that they’re sitting on.

It was a moral victory of moral victories. The Canucks played well and battled hard against a good Boston team. Yes, they came up short, but it wasn’t for a lack of good hockey. Could the team have done better, absolutely – but given the quality of games we’ve seen until this point of the season, considering how poorly this year has gone as a whole, it’s at least an entertaining loss to watch. There’s not a whole lot to complain about, besides the fact that the Canucks as a whole lack elite talent.

Vancouver travels to Buffalo next, taking on the Sabres on Tuesday.