And the tank rolls on.

The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 6-3 decision at home against the San Jose Sharks. By no means was it a complete blowout, but the Canucks did absolutely nothing to indicate they deserved to win this contest. There was just nothing convincing about this performance from them last night, and luckily, it keeps the tank efforts going strong. Maybe one day they’ll play an actually entertaining game at home.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

For two entire periods of the game, San Jose was in the driver’s seat. They never dropped below 56.00 CF% shares in the first and second, ensuring that the Canucks couldn’t manage to do much, while managing to hold a 61.70 xGF% in the first and 65.33 xGF% in the second. Vancouver was not threatening whatsoever, but managed to at least stay within striking distance. Somehow they got the 4-3 goal shorthanded, but two quick strikes from the Sharks put this game beyond all doubt after the score effects kicked in.

Just from the heat map alone, it’s apparent that the Canucks were not threatening whatsoever. Both teams struggled with scoring chances, with San Jose sitting at a 20-18 advantage but still doubling up on Vancouver by a 10-5 margin in high-danger chances. It’s just a hard watch when this team can’t even manage to get scoring chances, much less grade-A opportunities. The Canucks simply don’t have enough difference makers in their lineup to make something happen, and the stats have backed that up all season.

Corsi Champ: Leading the way in CF% was Max Sasson, racking up 60.00 on the night as he was dropped back down to a bottom 6 role. Unfortunately, a lot of his other numbers aren’t the prettiest to look at. Sasson recorded the team’s 4th-worst xGF% at 28.35, facing 0.70 xGA in just 8:58 TOI at 5v5 action. That’ll happen when you’re on ice for a 0-4 hole in high-danger chances, as Sasson just didn’t have the groove against the Sharks.

Corsi Chump: This is kind of hilarious. David Kampf posted the worst CF% on the team with his 31.58, but Adam Foote didn’t set him up for success whatsoever. Kampf featured on 3 separate line combinations as the lion’s share of his 5v5 minutes was playing against Macklin Celebrini. That’s right, David Kampf, the master shutdown man. Given the context of being jerked around and deployed against the opposition’s best player, he actually didn’t do so badly. Kampf recorded a 49.29 xGF%, sitting at 5.42 xGF% rel to team average, while managing to split the high-danger chance battle at 2-2. Most importantly, he didn’t see a goal against during his TOI, and that’s what counted in the grand scheme of things.

xGF: Returning to the lineup for the first time in a hot while, Elias Pettersson recorded the team’s best xGF% at 79.28. He looked pretty decently solid, on ice for a 7-3 lead in scoring chances and 2-0 advantage in high-danger chances. Again, it wasn’t the best raw numbers, but the team as a whole wasn’t the most inspiring in that regard. His 0.81 xGF was the second-best on the entire team, just behind Tom Willander’s team-best 1.01. Thing was, Willander was on ice for 3 goals against, facing the third-most xGA against at 0.84. Pretty big usage of the young Swede.

GSAx: It is not often that a goalie who gives up 5 goals against still somehow nearly breaks even in terms of GSAx. Yet, that was the case with Thatcher Demko, who battled all night behind some rough Canuck play. San Jose racked up 4.90 xGF across all situations, meaning that despite letting 5 goals past, Demko only finished with a -0.10 GSAx. That’s pretty much as good as it could get off a situation like this one, as the American conceded 3 high-danger goals with the other two split between middle and low danger. He could definitely use a breather with how much Vancouver has been leaning on him lately.

The other half of the equation: One of the more interesting things to pop up on the stat sheet was D-Petey’s numbers, specifically the difference between his play with Tyler Myers and Tom Willander. Pettersson had a busy night, on ice for the team’s worst xGA at 1.07 while facing a 2-6 deficit in high-danger chances. But looking at the difference in terms of who he was paired with, and perhaps the outcome might’ve been a bit different. Playing 6:46 with Myers, the duo recorded 21.43 CF% and 3.07 xGF%, facing 6 shots against with 0 shots for. 4 of the 6 high-danger chances that Pettersson faced came while playing with Myers. That’s a bit of a spoiler for the numbers when he was paired up with Willander, as his share metrics jumped up to 64.29 CF% and 50.17 xGF% with a 2-2 split in high-danger chances. Again, not game-breaking stuff, but that’s a darn better sight to see in the 5:30 TOI that the two Swedes teamed up for.

Trying to light a spark: There was plenty of line shuffling going around last night, and one has to suspect that Foote was trying to figure out how to generate offence from a forward group that just seems allergic to scoring. It’s frustrating to look at the numbers and see Brock Boeser all the way down as the third-worst in xGF%, even below the likes of Tyler Myers and D-Petey. It’s not much prettier when looking at raw xGF, as Boeser’s 0.16 ranked him as the second-worst at 5v5 play, just behind Linus Karlsson’s 0.14 – and at least he was able to score on the power play. Again, it wasn’t as if the team was particularly great around him, but Boeser should be one of the team’s offensive leaders – and he simply just hasn’t been.

The Canucks suck. It was just as simple as that, and this team was not good enough to win this hockey game. They kept it close, but it was some real ugly hockey to watch. It’s doubly more frustrating to see this happen against the Sharks – a Sharks franchise that swept the Canucks in 2012-13 to slam that window shut, a franchise that made it to the Cup final in 2017 and Western Conference Final in 2019, before sucking for 6 years and accumulating plenty of young talent in the process. And now, led by North Shore Winter Club’s very own Macklin Celebrini alongside the likes of Will Smith, and William Eklund, San Jose looks poised to take that next step back into being a contender. In that same span of time, the Canucks have made it to the second round twice.

Vancouver heads into Seattle to play the Kraken tomorrow for their final road game of 2025.