Well, it was better than the last couple of outings.

The Vancouver Canucks lost 4-1 against the Los Angeles Kings to kick off their California road trip. The silver lining in this loss, despite just the one goal for, was that the Canucks weren’t quite as bad as they had been in the last couple of outings. The underlying numbers actually suggested a pretty decent game from Vancouver, who unfortunately just couldn’t deliver or capitalize on them. Again, it’s a moral victory of moral victories, but as we’ve seen all year, the relative wins should be celebrated when they crop up.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

For the most part, this game hung in the balance. Granted, the peaks of the contest definitely favoured the Kings, but the Canucks at least showed some ability to claw the momentum back in their favour from time to time. The CF% shares all hovered around the 50s for each period, with the Kings stacking together a 51.35 xGF% in the first and 56.53 xGF% in the second to get themselves in the lead. After that, they shut things down, as while the Canucks managed a 71.45 xGF% in the third, their raw xGF was only at a 0.56 at 5v5 action with just three high-danger chances to boot. Los Angeles was definitely not in the business of letting Vancouver back into this one when they had a Wild Card spot to play for.

The heat map actually looks pretty solid for the Canucks, ignoring the fact that they couldn’t convert on a single one of their high-danger chances. Scoring chances for both teams were evenly split at 24-24 during even-strength play, with the Kings ever so slightly edging the Canucks out 14-11 in high-danger chances. But hey, Vancouver managed to actually total over double digits in high-danger chances, so that in and of itself is pretty nice to see. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, nothing really came of it offensively for the Canucks, but being able to get a good amount of high-danger chances in a single game is definitely nice to see.

Corsi Champ: Filip Hronek played a hefty role last night, stacking up against the Kings’ top line and actually coming out with some nice numbers to boot. The Czech defenceman led the Canucks with a 69.23 CF%, managing to hold a team-best 1.9 xGF while being on ice for an 18-6 scoring chance advantage and 8-2 high-danger chance lead. Given the quality of his competition, these numbers should not be overlooked as Hronek definitely turned in a very noteworthy effort despite being unable to find the scoresheet. Aside from an early rough turnover, his presence on the back end went a long way toward making this game more of a contest.

Corsi Chump: Tom Willander was paired up alongside Marcus Pettersson as shutdown fodder, and as a result, his numbers from last night look pretty darn rough. The Swede recorded a team-low 26.09 CF%, being on ice for a goal for and three goals against. Willander also happened to be on ice for a team-high 1.13 xGA, posting the team’s worst xGF% of 7.91 after being in a 0-12 scoring chance hole and 0-10 high-danger chance deficit. Not the best numbers by any stretch of the imagination, suffice it to say.

xGF: Nils Höglander hasn’t had the best of seasons (much like the rest of the team), so seeing him leading the team in xGF% is definitely a nice treat. A 77.24 xGF% put the Swedish winger at 32.60 xGF% rel to team average, managing to hold a 5-2 scoring chance advantage with a 2-1 high-danger chance lead. These aren’t the biggest of raw numbers, but for a team that has struggled so much when it comes to keeping their noses clean in their own end, for Höglander to soak up minutes without anything going against the Canucks is a pretty darn good positive.

GSAx: After bailing the Canucks out plenty last time out, Nikita Tolopilo‘s performance against the Kings left some desiring statistically. Los Angeles only accumulated 2.64 xGF across all situations, which meant that with four goals against, the Belarusian netminder gave up a -1.36 GSAx. Granted, the team in front of him certainly didn’t help matters with plenty of blown coverages and chaos. Tolopilo gave up three high-danger goals against and one middle-danger goal against, so it wasn’t as if he was giving up complete softies. One would hope for a slightly better outing, but given how this team has been as a whole, some slack should be given for Tolopilo.

Statistically, this was a much better contest than the effort the Canucks turned in against the Golden Knights, even if the scoreboard result was worse. They actually managed to threaten their opposition somewhat and even managed to get shots on goal. It does sound a little like grasping at straws, but there’s not a lot of positives as a whole from this year, so we’ll take what we can get. The other good news is that there are only four games left of this edition of the Vancouver Canucks, and the end can’t come soon enough.

Vancouver travels up to the Bay Area, taking on Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks tomorrow night.