Doing what they can do.

The Vancouver Canucks defeated the New Jersey Devils by a 4-3 scoreline in a shootout. Considering the injuries the team was dealing with and how their lineup looked to start the game, it was a gutsy effort just to get it into overtime. Then winning it in a shootout? The two points against a very good Devils team might prove to be extremely important down this stretch to help the Canucks stay in the running for that last wild card spot.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

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

The opening period seemed like it promised a Devils blowout. But, after the massive statistical advantage New Jersey jumped out to, the Canucks began to fight back. They managed to get the opening goal off the back of a great stretch of hockey, finishing with a 59.35 xGF% share by the end of the first period. That good stretch continued into the second period, but the Canucks were unable to deliver on the share metrics they were recoding. That unfortunately let the Devils hang around, which saw the home team get into the lead late in the third. Vancouver did even it up with a last gasp effort, which was enough for them to get the shootout win.

The heat map actually favoured the Canucks decently well last night. While the overall scoring chances sat at 27-23 for the Devils, the Canucks held a 14-11 edge in high-danger chances. Half of them came in the second period, where Vancouver probably had their best stretch of hockey over the course of the game. New Jersey did out-chance the Canucks 12-7 in the third period, but the HDCF were only 4-3 for the Devils. The hot spots do reflect how the Canucks were able to get a good concentration of their chances from high-danger areas, more so than the Devils last night.

Corsi Champ: The biggest complaint with Jonathan Lekkerimäki last night was that he didn’t play enough. Leading the Canucks with a 75.00 CF%, the young Swede lined up on the “second” line but yet saw limited deployment at 5v5. It was a little strange, considering the numbers that Lekkerimäki was recording, and a little counterintuitive with how well Vancouver played with him on the ice. But, perhaps this will help him earn more leash from Rick Tocchet.

Corsi Chump: Victor Mancini didn’t fare the best in New Jersey last night, bringing up the rear of the Corsi department with a 30.77 CF%. The lack of puck possession did come to bite Mancini’s numbers elsewhere, with the defenceman posting the 4th-worst xGF% of 24.52 despite seeing a large majority of his shift starts coming in the offensive zone. The bright spot in this is that Mancini still managed to split the high-danger chances evenly at 3 apiece. Considering that he was on ice for a 5-10 deficit in overall scoring chances, things definitely could’ve been a lot worse.

xGF: Guess what – Lekkerimäki also led the Canucks in xGF% with a 90.37 to his name. That’s right, the Canucks held over a 90% share of expected goals while he was playing. Lekkerimäki wasn’t on ice for a single high-danger chance against while managing 3 scoring chances and 1 HDCF during his 7:18 TOI. For that limited deployment at 5v5, it’s pretty impressive to be racking up that stat line, which begs the question why he didn’t see more of the ice. Leading the way in raw xGF was Quinn Hughes, putting up 1.39 total on the night.

GSAx: Thatcher Demko, take a bow. Coming off the IL to help the Canucks secure the win, the American netminder faced 3.51 xGF and turned away everything but 2 high-danger goals against and 1 middle-danger goal against. That left Demko with a 0.51 GSAx, which considering his time off, is pretty darn good. He did more than enough to help the Canucks get the win, including an absolutely absurd save in overtime.

How to play 4th line minutes: Aatu Raty was brought up to the big club in place of Elias Pettersson and fared pretty darn well for being tossed right on into the deep end. Centering a line between Drew O’Connor and Conor Garland, the trio produced some pretty impressive offensive numbers. Posting a team-best 57.14 CF%, the DOC-Raty-Garland line also generated a massive 0.87 xGF, putting them 0.49 xGF ahead of second place on the team. That also gave the trio a team-best 90.69 xGF% with 4 HDCF and 0 HDCA. Not bad for a day’s work, suffice it to say.

On the other hand: Something that stood out for all the wrong reasons was the performances from Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua. The forwards had a miserable night, with Joshua facing a team-high 1.12 xGA and Blueger right behind him at 0.95. It was no wonder the two were at 14.19 and 14.97 xGF% respectively, both team-lows, giving up 3 HDCA apiece. Joshua was on ice for two goals against while Bleuger was on ice for one goal against. Not their best performance, and it made perfect sense to limit their ice time at 5v5.

The Canucks played well on the road. They didn’t start off the greatest, but fought back with an undermanned and underpowered lineup to overcome some really good opposition. All of the stats suggest that Vancouver very much deserved the win, and the margin in a shootout is perfectly fine. Getting the twin and two points under their belt with just 11 games left in the season might prove huge should the Canucks sneak back into the playoff picture.

Vancouver heads into UBS Arena to take on Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders tomorrow.