And the tank efforts continue.

The Vancouver Canucks lost 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres. For a large chunk of the game, it looked out of hand, the Sabres running hot and running rampant all over the Canucks. However, thanks to a quick stretch of three goals, things got interesting towards the end, but make no mistake – this Canucks team didn’t deserve to win this game. They didn’t move the needle at all through two periods at even strength, and despite getting plenty of chances on special teams, they couldn’t deliver, which has been such a familiar statement for this group.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

This is one of the flattest 5v5 game flows that one might see all season. Buffalo didn’t come on that strong, but they were still handling Vancouver without too much of an issue at all, and that was despite the Canucks getting a ton of high-danger chances shorthanded. They held a slight CF% edge through two periods and translated that into a healthy xGF% share margin, with some actually solid raw numbers to back it up as well. All eyes might be on the third for Canucks fans, as the three goals in quick succession did inject some excitement into this contest – but as evidenced from the game flow, it didn’t actually move the needle all that much. In the third, the high-danger scoring chances at 5v5 was just 2-1 for the Canucks, with a better 8-1 margin when accounting for all situations.

Vancouver actually put up a good heat map against Buffalo, which is yet another game in a row which this has happened. At 5v5, the scoring chances were 23-18 with the Canucks posting a narrow 9-7 lead in high-danger chances. These numbers get inflated to 45-19 and 23-8 respectively for the Canucks when accounting for all situations, but again, the majority of those opportunities came with the man advantage – something Vancouver simply could not capitalize on. It’s certainly better than losing snoozefests, but the theme remains clear that the Canucks aren’t managing to hit the back of the net on relatively ineffective special teams, and play relatively flat at 5v5 the rest of the way.

Corsi Champ: Filip Hronek led the Canucks in CF% last night at 65.52, playing heavy minutes against Buffalo’s top 6. He’s been a workhorse ever since the Hughes trade and continued to elevate his play on the back end, treading above water at 57.19 xGF% with a 13-6 edge in scoring chances. Not insignificant contributions to say the least, as his veteran presence on a younger, more inexperienced back line has proven invaluable. Hronek has emerged as a leader on this team whether by choice or necessity, and the numbers are backing him up on that as well.

Corsi Chump: Jake DeBrusk finds himself buried at the bottom of the Corsi charts, tallying a 33.33 CF% last night. Given that stat though, the rest of his numbers are actually not horrific. DeBrusk finished with a 57.52 xGF%, which was just a little above team average, while managing to split a 1-1 battle in high-danger chances. Considering where his CF% was, one probably could’ve expected the rest of his game to suffer, but DeBrusk managed to limit its impact relatively well. And hey, he managed to score on the power play as well.

xGF: Linus Karlsson led the Canucks in xGF% with a 63.48, primarily thanks to the second-best xGA of 0.3 last night. The Swede looked pretty alright and managed to hold his own, when clearly his line alongside Elias Pettersson was heavily matched up against. Karlsson was on ice for a goal-for, managing to pick up an assist on it after cycling the puck up to the point. Leading the way in raw xGF was Tyler Myers with a 0.81 at 5v5, though that impact was offset by giving up 2 goals against during his TOI.

GSAx: This was not a pretty game for Thatcher Demko. Across all situations, the Sabres only managed to generate 1.93 xGF, meaning that with 4 goals against, the netminder finished at a -2.07 GSAx. That’s a pretty costly difference especially considering how close the Canucks got towards the end. At the very least, all four goals against came off high-danger chances, and the team in front of him had to figure out their defensive work. Still, it’s not the best reflection of Demko to be giving up something like that.

The Olympic Boost: One of the more surprising players to feature strongly last night was David Kampf, with the Czech seeing a lot of action against the Tage Thompson line. Considering how hot the Sabres have been, Kampf did well, actually dominating his minutes possession-wise to record Vancouver’s second-best CF% at 60.00. The centerman helped nullify their impact pretty darn well offensively, holding them to 0.00 xGF and finishing without a single shot against during their ~6 minutes facing off against each other. Considering the calibre of players he was up against, Kampf played a fine game.

Tough Times: Marcus Pettersson is a fine defenceman. However, he’s being leaned on a lot by this Canucks team, given the inexperience of the defencemen, and the cracks are showing in Pettersson’s numbers. Tasked with handling the Sabres top 6 primarily, Pettersson finished with the second-worst CF% of 42.31, third-worst xGF% of 39.53, and team-worst 0.73 xGA at 5v5. Again, as a primarily defensive defencemen, these numbers are sort of expected – but at the same time, that can only last for so long before something has to give.

The final overall numbers saw a heavy advantage for the Canucks, but that was buoyed by special teams that got plenty of chances but didn’t have a lot of finish. Unfortunately, there was a path to victory here, but combined with the fact that they couldn’t make Buffalo pay on the man-advantage, and the lack of needle-moving at 5v5, you end up with a game like this one. At least it was fun towards the end, but the Canucks need help and some serious game-breaking talent.

Vancouver hops over into Detroit to play the Red Wings tomorrow night.