Not the dream homecoming for Connor Bedard.
The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Chicago Blackhawks by a 4-1 scoreline. It’s a result that shocks no one and yet again another game where the Canucks collect full points against a bottom-feeder. But, with the significance of the game for Bedard and Vancouver, it was still a good win to get. Defensively, the Canucks were probably a little more permissive than they would have liked to be against a team like Chicago, but the end result saw Vancouver capitalize where they could and get some great performances out of a group that struggled in the previous outing.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

It wasn’t a dream first period for the Canucks. Getting caved 0.64-1.47 xGF isn’t great, especially against the likes of Chicago. In the opening frame alone, Vancouver gave up 5 high-danger chances while only getting 4 high-danger chances of their own. Luckily, they managed to figure it out by the time the second period rolled around, the team controlling a 72.97 CF% and 58.93 xGF% share. It was enough for the Canucks to even up the game then find their go-ahead tally in the third, carrying the momentum on and locking down the Blackhawks in the third period, only facing 0.20 xGA in the final frame.

Heat Map

Despite the win, Vancouver’s issues when it comes to chance generation continued against Chicago. They had a narrow 22-21 lead in total scoring chances at 5v5, with just a 9-8 high-danger chance edge to go along with it. That much is reflected by a relatively tepid heat map, where they didn’t get much of a hot spot at all from the slot area. On the flip side, the Canucks held up their end of the bargain on the defensive side, not allowing Chicago to create their high-danger hot spot either. That however should be the expectation when playing against a team like the Blackhawks.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: It’s probably a little surprising that Noah Juulsen tops the Canucks’ Corsi charts. The defenceman led the team with an 81.48 CF%, on ice for an 11-4 shot advantage while managing a 58.92 xGF%. The latter stat was actually the 5th-best on the Canucks roster, Juulsen managing to split a 3-3 high-danger chance battle during his TOI. That honestly is not bad, especially considering that Juulsen is the defacto 7th defenceman on the team. For him to be on the upper end of the Canucks’ stat sheet is a welcome surprise.
Corsi Chump: This is territory that he’s usually not in. Teddy Blueger finished as the team’s worst Corsi man with a 28.00, a full -40.42 CF% rel to team average. It was the first reunion of the Joshua-Blueger-Garland unit, with the trio posting some very underwhelming stats together. Blueger finished as the worst man in xGF% as well, recording a team-low 0.16 xGF and 17.63 xGF%. That comes with being on ice for 0 high-danger chances for and 8 high-danger chances against. At least he capped off the night with an empty net goal.
xGF: Jake DeBrusk is turning the corner, the streaky winger finding his hot streak. Against the Blackhawks, he racked up the team’s best xGF% with 83.91, a full 12 percent higher than second place. DeBrusk was on ice for a 12-4 lead in scoring chances and 6-1 high-danger chance advantage. His 1.08 xGF also put him in a tie for 2nd place on the team with Kiefer Sherwood, only trailing Elias Pettersson’s team-best 1.12 xGF. Not a bad game at all for a trio that might see a longer run together.
GSAx: For the first time this season, Arturs Silovs turned in a confident performance worth writing home about. Facing down 2.61 xGF, the Latvian turned aside all but one shot to finish with 1.61 GSAx. The only chance to sneak by him was an Ilya Mikheyev goal from a high-danger area. How many time does that happen? After that though, Silovs was perfect, and that’s the kind of performance that one wants to see from him after a less-than-stellar start to the year.

Statistical Musings

A look at the Sherwood-Pettersson-DeBrusk line: As briefly mentioned earlier, the trio of Kiefer Sherwood  – Elias Pettersson – and Jake DeBrusk were excellent against Chicago. Last night, they recorded team-bests in CF% (79.31) and xGF% (82.03). Their team-high of 0.94 xGF was 0.69 higher than the next highest tally from the Hoglander-Raty-Heinen combination, showing just what a disparity in chance generation was happening amongst the forward corps last night. Their line was on ice for a team-high of 12 scoring chances and 6 high-danger chances – the next highest total being 2 high-danger chances. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see this line together for a longer stretch of time and see if this is a consistent combination to ice.
Where Suter-Miller-Lekkerimäki struggled: It was a little odd to see this line where they were last night. While the Joshua-Blueger-Garland line didn’t see much success and finished with team-lows in every category, the Suter-Miller-Lekkerimäki unit weren’t too far away from them as well. What stood out was that this line finished with the second-worst xGF% of 19.03, only barely edging out Joshua-Blueger-Garland’s team-worst 0.10 xGF with a 0.13 xGF. Lekkerimäki in particular struggled against the Hawks, posting the third-worst CF% of 38.10 and xGF% of 22.87. Now granted, it is his third NHL games, and no players go without their struggles.

As a team

CF% – 59.83% HDCF% – 57.14% xGF% – 60.45%
The Canucks weren’t at their peak in this one, especially in the first period, but they managed to figure out their game and get things rolling. Most of the roster had a good bounce-back effort against objectively weaker opposition, playing up to their billing and managing to control the game the rest of the way after giving up the opening goal. Chance generation once again proves to be a bit of an issue for this group, but other than that, it was nice to see players taking steps up and playing with a bit of confidence. The real test of their mettle will come against teams with actual playoff ambitions – something that has proven to be a struggle this year.
Vancouver is right back in action, hosting the Nashville Predators tonight.
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