That was a fun game to watch.

The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 9-7 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, losing in a goal-bonanza fashion. Honestly, there’s not much to be tremendously unhappy about, except that the team gave up nine goals. Vancouver got some great individual performances from their skaters — along with some rough defending and goaltending. But putting up this much on the board, against the Oilers, over the first two games? Now that’s a fun way to kick off a rebuild.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

Vancouver got off to a good start at home, momentum-wise, but found the tables turned against them by the midpoint of the first. By the end of the first, Edmonton had shifted the share metrics strongly in their favour, with the Canucks recording a 28.57 CF% and 27.5 xGF% share through the opening frame. High-danger chances stood at 1-4, and it felt like the hole Vancouver found itself in was only going to get bigger.

The second, however, saw the Canucks start to even things out at 5v5 play. They split a 4-4 high-danger chance difference while putting up 55.74 xGF%, coming from a 1.13-0.9 xGF lead. Possession-wise, it was still favouring the Oilers, but not nearly as much as the first. By the time the third rolled around, Vancouver really put fear into Edmonton. They managed a whopping 88.46 CF%, 98.59 xGF%, an 11-0 scoring-chance lead, and a 7-0 high-danger-chance advantage. In the years of writing the Statsies, there may not have been a more statistically dominant period than this one. The Canucks played out of their minds at even strength and really made this a game, and that’s all anyone could’ve asked out of them after getting into such a big hole early.

With how the heat map is distributed, it really didn’t seem like the Oilers were the team that scored 9 times last night. Vancouver held the scoring-chance lead at even strength, coming in at a 23-19 advantage overall, while also posting a 12-8 lead in high-danger chances, as reflected by the hot spot in the low slot. There are definitely aspects the Canucks would like to have back, such as the goal from the far right wall, but overall, not a bad heat map whatsoever, with some decent scoreboard results to speak for it.

Corsi Champ: Jonathan Lekkerimäki led the Canucks in CF% last night, pouring in a 76.47 CF% while being on ice for three goals for and just one goal against. The Swede saw time alongside both Marco Rossi and Elias Pettersson, primarily getting neutral or defensive zone starts, with 0 starts in the O-zone both off faceoffs and on the fly. That makes Lekkerimäki’s 1.5 xGF even more impressive: the third-best on the team, while also posting the third-best xGF% at 77.34. Not a bad night at all, and one that Lekkerimäki could definitely build on.

Corsi Chump: Linus Karlsson was bottom of the barrel in Corsi, racking up a 35.71 CF% while playing primarily against Leon Draisaitl’s line. It wasn’t the best night for him or his linemates, with one goal for and three against. That being said, Karlsson still managed to hold a 59.10 xGF% with a 2-1 high-danger chance advantage. All things considered, it could’ve been worse for his own statistical line, especially up against the quality of competition that he was facing.

xGF: Topping the charts in expected goals for percentage was none other than Elias Pettersson, who put up a huge 88.06 XGF% against Edmonton last night. This follows a team-best 0.17 xGA and the 6th-best xGF of 1.22. Pettersson managed to split a 7-1 lead in overall scoring chances with a 4-0 high-danger chance differential. He’s been looking a lot more like the EP40 of old, and with a tidy three points to his name, perhaps we can expect more from him going forward. Leading the way in raw xGF was Zeev Buium, putting up 1.67 xGF on the night at even strength. That being said, he was also on ice for a team-worst 1.38 xGA and four goals against, so there were definitely things in his own end that the defenceman needed to iron out.

GSAx: Not a banner night for Kevin Lankinen, though in his defence the team in front of him wasn’t too interested in playing defence as well. The Finn only faced 2.46 xGF before getting the hook, meaning that with 8 goals past him, his GSAx on the night came in at a whopping -5.54. Five of the goals were recorded as high-danger, two as low-danger, and the remaining one as middle-danger. Again, not ideal in any sense, but Lankinen wasn’t getting much help. Coming in to close out the game was Leevi Meriläinen, who faced 0.95 xGF and allowed a single middle-danger goal for a -0.05 GSAx. Not really moving the needle, all things considered, but definitely better than Lankinen.

Max Sasson V. Connor McDavid, part 2: Eyes were certainly on Max Sasson last night to see if he could repeat his matchup success against Connor McDavid. Unfortunately for the Canucks, it seemed that the Oilers had made some adjustments and game-planned for that. The numbers for the trio came in at 14.29 CF% and 14.49 xGF% with two goals against, which doesn’t sound the best. However, there are a couple of silver linings here. McDavid didn’t score a 5v5 goal last night, and despite the numbers, Sasson’s line only conceded 1 high-danger chance against. Perhaps it wasn’t as effective as it was in the opener, but they did pretty darn well.

That was a fun game. If every Canucks loss this year looked like that, there would probably be a lot of happy fans with the tank. This team did well to push back, and while getting themselves into that hole isn’t a good thing, they showed plenty of resilience to make the Stanley Cup-contending Oilers sweat. The windows are completely different, and right now, Vancouver is just building the foundation for the team that will blossom in the future.

Vancouver hosts the Calgary Flames tomorrow for their next matchup.